Megan Fraud regretted that she could not have been there to witness the
effects of the little goodie she'd planted in the PTV, but watching it on
TV was a nice consolation prize. The homemade explosive had completely
destroyed the armored vehicle and no doubt killed at least a couple of
rescue workers and police officers. The police had a puzzle on their hands,
no doubt about that. Why did the PTV keep going after it had been ordered
to stop? Why were the doors locked? Why was there a bomb inside? These
questions had an answer, but no one would figure out the right one.
Instead, like these gung-ho reporters that wasted screen space with their
empty predictions and guesses, they would blame Robin, and no doubt the
rest of the Teen Titans for everything. Just like she wanted them to.
Why did the PTV keep going despite orders to stop? Because the real PTV driver was dead in a dumpster somewhere and the one who had been driving was Megan herself, who taken on his appearance. She had locked the doors and welded them shut with one of Robin's many devices, and then planted her bomb right in the seat. If the PTV where still in one piece, one would be able to see the large hole in its floor where Megan had gotten out.
She reached for the remote and clicked the power button, causing the television images to abruptly die out. As would the Titans, she promised herself. As would the Titans.
***
It was a regenerative catalyst, at least that's what the label said. Cyborg took a look at the small vial and opened it. Inside was a dark, opaque liquid. He looked down at Robin. The bullet was gone, but Robin had still lost a lot of blood, among other equally serious medical problems the guy was facing. The regenerative had come from Robin's utility belt. Cyborg would never have thought to use it were it not for the flashback to a certain conversation he and Robin had shared long ago. Robin had said something about developing a chemical that could exponentially increase the cellular regeneration of any given organism. Scientific jargon for healing.
Cyborg slid the vial into the canister cradle of his turbo-syringe and carefully infected the stuff into Robin's arm. If he used the whole thing, it could heal Robin completely, but he would die anyway. Why? Because the solution needed energy to work effectively, and where else to derive its energy than from its host? In most cases, the loss of energy was hardly noticeable, but the dosage required for such an injury as Robin had would drain him so dry that his body functions would just stop. No, Robin needed a smaller dose, so at least it would buy him time, even if it couldn't completely heal the wound.
Cyborg injected about seven mL and then withdrew the syringe. He had to face the fact that without the advanced medical equipment they had back at the Tower, Robin would die.
He looked over at Starfire, who was huddled in a corner, crying. At least she had been crying. Now she was just staring blankly at Robin, all out of tears.
Raven and Beast Boy were sitting down on a makeshift bench of pipes and boards at the other end of the expanse. Cyborg couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. He never would have thought that Raven would voluntarily say anything more than, 'You're so immature,' to the resident green skinned changeling. He supposed tense situations had a way of changing things.
Cyborg cleared his throat, causing Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy to look up. Nightwing peeked his head around the doorframe that connected the two main underground cells.
Starfire raised her head. "What is it?"
"Robin," said Cyborg slowly, "is going to die unless we get him to the Tower, Soon."
"But its got police swarming all over the place," said Beast Boy. "Or have you forgotten? And why can't you just fix him up here?"
"I don't have the equipment I need," Cyborg said calmly. "And no, I haven't forgotten about all the S.W.AT. teams. To put it simply, we're just going to have to remove them.
Beast Boy's mouth dropped to comical proportions. Raven stared grimly at Cyborg. "That will be difficult, perhaps impossible."
Starfire rose to her feet and eyed Cyborg. "You are sure it is necessary?"
"Dead sure."
"Then we will have to do it." Starfire looked purposely at Raven and Beast Boy, and then her eyes burst into a bright, luminescent green as she levitated a few feet off the ground.
***
"Its only a matter of time Morris," said Richard. "They're bound to show up."
"What gives you that idea? They could plausibly escape detection for months, even years in a city this large and with their powers to help." Morris sighed and picked up the worn, blue pencil next to his notepad, which he had divided up into five sections, one for every Titan. The poor light in the main office was hard to work with, but he managed anyway.
Under Robin, he put the word presumed in front of the word dead. Everyone thought he must have died, the sniper swore by it. But Morris still wasn't sure. Such assumptions had had a habit of letting him down in the past.
Richard, who was sitting next to him peeked over. "Whatcha got there?"
Morris held the notebook page up to the light so he could show it more clearly. "I've been researching the Titans online, I'm just compiling information on them. Makes them easier to deal with if we know a lot about them."
Richard nodded. "Makes sense. Can I see it?"
"Sure." Morris slid the notebook over to Richard.
Robin: No actual superhuman abilities. Wide range of weapons and other high- tech equipment. Footage analysis suggests that he is trained in several different martial arts disciplines. Extremely agile and athletic. Former protégé of Batman. Presumed dead.
Starfire: Origin unknown. Has ability of high speed flight and varied energy projection. Limits unknown.
Cyborg: Was severely injured in an accident. Gained cybernetic augmentations. Possesses superhuman stength. Limits unknown. Possesses several other various devices, including Sonic Cannon, which can emit high decibel sonic blasts.
Raven: Origin unknown. Known Powers: Versatile psychokinesis, precise enough to halt, perhaps even change trajectory of bullets or other high velocity prokectiles.
Beast Boy: Metamorph. Has the ability of cellular reconfiguration. So far, seems to be limited to changing into animals while retaining distinctly green pigmentation. Can change into prehistoric animal species. Perhaps able to morph into alien animals. Origin: Unknown.
"You misspelled 'projectiles'," said Richard, ever the stickler. "This is good though."
"Yeah. I'll have a more analytical version of this up and running on our database. I've also been obtaining transcripts of interviews with people who have fought the Titans before. This of course includes members of our own S.W.A.T. teams, but villains as well."
"Like who?"
Morris looked through some more of his papers. "Lets see here, we have some cryptic, yet useful info from the HIVE. We have the video footage of their confrontation with the Titans. Some other interrogation transcripts, but its mostly with small time robbers that the Titans have put away over time."
Richard cut him off with a chuckle. "Boy, its like you want to become our overnight resident expert on the Teen Titans."
"We all should be. We won't survive another head to head battle, at least not without some serious consequences. We need to analyze them, try to find their strengths and weaknesses."
"Yeah, especially since they stopped caring about killing people."
Morris gave his trademark lopsided frown. "Especially since then," he agreed.
Their cell phones went off at the same time. Morris knew even before taking his out that the Titans were on the move again. He stifled a yawn. It was early morning now, and he hadn't gotten much sleep at all.
"Yes?"
Both Morris and Richard got the same story from their respective superiors. There was a large explosion in the sea about a mile west of the Teen Titans Tower. All officers not already on a different official task were to report. It was unorthodox, but Morris figured they had to be when dealing with an unorthodox problem such as this.
Morris grabbed his secondary sidearm, the Glock .20 and tossed Richard one of the custom made handguns that he favored so much. Twenty minutes later, both had their lightweight Kevlar weave body armor on and specialized helmets with built in communications and night vision specs. The department's garage was almost empty because most of the vehicles had already been taken. Thankfully, there was a squad car left, which they managed to use.
"Twenty bucks says those Titans are behind it," said Richard as they sped down the street, sirens blaring.
"You won't find any argument from me," said Morris. "Although I have no idea why they would do such a thing. What could they hope to gain by blowing up an empty boat in the middle of the water?"
The answer came to him about ten minutes later, when they arrived at the harbor.
By then, it was too late.
***
"We'll create a diversion, said Cyborg, pointing to the 3-D holographic projection of the Tower and surrounding geography that was being emitted from the projector in his right arm. His robotic finger came to rest on a coordinate that lay roughly a mile out from the main island. "An explosion perhaps. It doesn't really matter, as long as we can draw the majority of their forces away from the Tower. We should probably set off similar diversions at intervals farther and farther away from the Tower, to buy us some time."
Nightwing studied the projection. "Leave that to me," he said. At Raven's questioning look, he continued, "I have a pretty nice speedboat. It shouldn't be too much of a problem to sneak past whatever hasty sentry they've managed to scramble together. As for explosions, I've got a few flares that might do the trick. Torpedoes too, if it's the realistic path you gotta take."
"Uh, yeah, you take care of that," said Cyborg. He turned to the rest of his teammates. "As soon as Nightwing sets off the second flare-"
"Explosion," corrected Nighting. "I'll be using T-4 rockets, you should be able to hear and see the bang for miles."
"Explosion then." Cyborg was rather irritated at Nightwing's lack of seriousness, but he managed to keep that impulse under control. "Whatever. As soon as Nightwing sets off the second explosion, we move. It'll need to be fast, since we don't have much time until daylight."
"More likely than not, we're going to have a fight on our hands," said Raven. She removed her hood and circled around to get a better look at the hologram. "We try our best not to kill anybody, because sooner or later, we need to prove our innocence and having casualties on our heads won't help our case."
"Robin's life is the most important thing though," said Starfire. "If it comes down to a choice between taking Robin's life or the enemy's, there is no contest in my mind." She said this with such conviction that no one in the room said anything for a moment. She went on. "I saw him shot down, just like that. He was not threatening the lives of those policemen, yet for some reason they saw fit to kill him."
"Robin's not dead," Beast Boy reminded her.
"They intended for him to be," Sarfire retorted angrily. "That was a fatal shot, let us not pretend otherwise." The tears were back now, and Starfire hastily made an attempt to wipe them away.
Cyborg didn't know what to say to that. He'd never seen this side of Starfire before. This angry, almost passionately so, girl. Tense situations had a way of changing things indeed, so it seemed.
He reached to his arm and clicked off the projector. "Well then, lets move."
***
"That's what I call a Big Bang," muttered Richard as he, Morris, and several other officers watched the recorded footage of the explosion. The speakers had almost shorted out from the shockwave of sound that it had produced.
The woman who was showing them the video, a middle aged, yet quite attractive woman with stylishly graying hair and an entirely black outfit, turned the monitor off. "Hopefully, you all caught what it was that I did in this."
Morris eyed the Director. "It's kind of hard to tell given how dark it is, but there seems to be a ripple in the nearby water right before the explosion."
She gave him an appraising look. "Very good. Closer analysis shows that that ripple is most likely caused by an underwater projectile. Conclusion: someone set out a boat on the water and then launched a torpedo of some sort at it."
"It's the act of a crazed person, the arbitrary and senseless destruction of a boat," said a cultured, British voice from behind Morris somewhere.
"Perhaps," the Madame Director said. "Perhaps not. "Knowing this, you will now be boarding a patrol boat to assist in the investigation of-"
BANG . . . WHOOOSHHHHHHHH!
Morris blinked. Since they were located outside, it was easy to see the bright orange glow against the early morning sky. That and sound . . .it was identical to the first explosion, just a little farther off.
The Director, whose head had swiveled back suddenly at the explosion turned back to the group assembled before her. "You'd better hurry," she said.
***
"There!" whispered Beast Boy. "That was the second explosion.
"I see a good many boats heading out there," said Raven.
"Good," Cyborg muttered. "Now for phase two. I'll just tap a few buttons on this here keypad in my arm and . . . there we go. There was a brief spark of light, but that was it.
"Ummm, what did you do exactly?" asked Beast Boy. "I wasn't really paying attention when you explained it."
"It was a condensed Electro-Magnetic Pulse," Cyborg explained hastily. "It shuts down anything electronically operated, which is why I needed to fiddle around with all of your communicators and electronic equipment, to make modifications that would shield it from the effects of the EMP."
"So all of their electronic systems are worthless," summarized Starfire. She was carrying Robin, so she was constantly shifting her weight to compensate for his own added weight.
"Exactly." Cyborg checked the chronometer in his forearm. "Time is of the essence people, we have to get this wrapped up as quickly as possible."
***
"That's odd," said the patrol boat driver. He tried to start the vehicle again, but it did the same thing it had before. Absolutely nothing. "Dang thing must be busted again."
"Perhaps you should radio for another boat," someone said.
"Yeah. Uh, lets see here." The unusually short driver picked up the mike and depressed the broadcast switch. "104 to 5, we have a sitch here, the patrol boat doesn't seem to be-. Oh, crap." He disgustedly tossed away the mike, which did not work either.
Morris looked around. The hum of boat engines had stopped. The light from the powerful search beams were no longer present, as if they had shorted out.
He took his handheld mini-computer out of his pocket, testing the theory that was beginning to form in his mind. He pressed the 'on' button.
Nothing happened.
OK, now here's where I extend a warm 'thank you' to all you wonderful people who have reviewed. Thank you:
Kim, Oorta Dragoon, Apoctawizzit DOOM, kid titan, DBZ Chick 1, TriforceofWisdom, erin 11, Chain2, rammbo, Brat Monkee, SuNsHiNe10, DragonBlond, jillian4, Lenne's*Spirit, Sonic-Fan, Sk8terKittygirl, Pucca 1, Pisces Panda, and Arkady627, and anyone else who I might have accidentally left out.
Why did the PTV keep going despite orders to stop? Because the real PTV driver was dead in a dumpster somewhere and the one who had been driving was Megan herself, who taken on his appearance. She had locked the doors and welded them shut with one of Robin's many devices, and then planted her bomb right in the seat. If the PTV where still in one piece, one would be able to see the large hole in its floor where Megan had gotten out.
She reached for the remote and clicked the power button, causing the television images to abruptly die out. As would the Titans, she promised herself. As would the Titans.
***
It was a regenerative catalyst, at least that's what the label said. Cyborg took a look at the small vial and opened it. Inside was a dark, opaque liquid. He looked down at Robin. The bullet was gone, but Robin had still lost a lot of blood, among other equally serious medical problems the guy was facing. The regenerative had come from Robin's utility belt. Cyborg would never have thought to use it were it not for the flashback to a certain conversation he and Robin had shared long ago. Robin had said something about developing a chemical that could exponentially increase the cellular regeneration of any given organism. Scientific jargon for healing.
Cyborg slid the vial into the canister cradle of his turbo-syringe and carefully infected the stuff into Robin's arm. If he used the whole thing, it could heal Robin completely, but he would die anyway. Why? Because the solution needed energy to work effectively, and where else to derive its energy than from its host? In most cases, the loss of energy was hardly noticeable, but the dosage required for such an injury as Robin had would drain him so dry that his body functions would just stop. No, Robin needed a smaller dose, so at least it would buy him time, even if it couldn't completely heal the wound.
Cyborg injected about seven mL and then withdrew the syringe. He had to face the fact that without the advanced medical equipment they had back at the Tower, Robin would die.
He looked over at Starfire, who was huddled in a corner, crying. At least she had been crying. Now she was just staring blankly at Robin, all out of tears.
Raven and Beast Boy were sitting down on a makeshift bench of pipes and boards at the other end of the expanse. Cyborg couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. He never would have thought that Raven would voluntarily say anything more than, 'You're so immature,' to the resident green skinned changeling. He supposed tense situations had a way of changing things.
Cyborg cleared his throat, causing Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy to look up. Nightwing peeked his head around the doorframe that connected the two main underground cells.
Starfire raised her head. "What is it?"
"Robin," said Cyborg slowly, "is going to die unless we get him to the Tower, Soon."
"But its got police swarming all over the place," said Beast Boy. "Or have you forgotten? And why can't you just fix him up here?"
"I don't have the equipment I need," Cyborg said calmly. "And no, I haven't forgotten about all the S.W.AT. teams. To put it simply, we're just going to have to remove them.
Beast Boy's mouth dropped to comical proportions. Raven stared grimly at Cyborg. "That will be difficult, perhaps impossible."
Starfire rose to her feet and eyed Cyborg. "You are sure it is necessary?"
"Dead sure."
"Then we will have to do it." Starfire looked purposely at Raven and Beast Boy, and then her eyes burst into a bright, luminescent green as she levitated a few feet off the ground.
***
"Its only a matter of time Morris," said Richard. "They're bound to show up."
"What gives you that idea? They could plausibly escape detection for months, even years in a city this large and with their powers to help." Morris sighed and picked up the worn, blue pencil next to his notepad, which he had divided up into five sections, one for every Titan. The poor light in the main office was hard to work with, but he managed anyway.
Under Robin, he put the word presumed in front of the word dead. Everyone thought he must have died, the sniper swore by it. But Morris still wasn't sure. Such assumptions had had a habit of letting him down in the past.
Richard, who was sitting next to him peeked over. "Whatcha got there?"
Morris held the notebook page up to the light so he could show it more clearly. "I've been researching the Titans online, I'm just compiling information on them. Makes them easier to deal with if we know a lot about them."
Richard nodded. "Makes sense. Can I see it?"
"Sure." Morris slid the notebook over to Richard.
Robin: No actual superhuman abilities. Wide range of weapons and other high- tech equipment. Footage analysis suggests that he is trained in several different martial arts disciplines. Extremely agile and athletic. Former protégé of Batman. Presumed dead.
Starfire: Origin unknown. Has ability of high speed flight and varied energy projection. Limits unknown.
Cyborg: Was severely injured in an accident. Gained cybernetic augmentations. Possesses superhuman stength. Limits unknown. Possesses several other various devices, including Sonic Cannon, which can emit high decibel sonic blasts.
Raven: Origin unknown. Known Powers: Versatile psychokinesis, precise enough to halt, perhaps even change trajectory of bullets or other high velocity prokectiles.
Beast Boy: Metamorph. Has the ability of cellular reconfiguration. So far, seems to be limited to changing into animals while retaining distinctly green pigmentation. Can change into prehistoric animal species. Perhaps able to morph into alien animals. Origin: Unknown.
"You misspelled 'projectiles'," said Richard, ever the stickler. "This is good though."
"Yeah. I'll have a more analytical version of this up and running on our database. I've also been obtaining transcripts of interviews with people who have fought the Titans before. This of course includes members of our own S.W.A.T. teams, but villains as well."
"Like who?"
Morris looked through some more of his papers. "Lets see here, we have some cryptic, yet useful info from the HIVE. We have the video footage of their confrontation with the Titans. Some other interrogation transcripts, but its mostly with small time robbers that the Titans have put away over time."
Richard cut him off with a chuckle. "Boy, its like you want to become our overnight resident expert on the Teen Titans."
"We all should be. We won't survive another head to head battle, at least not without some serious consequences. We need to analyze them, try to find their strengths and weaknesses."
"Yeah, especially since they stopped caring about killing people."
Morris gave his trademark lopsided frown. "Especially since then," he agreed.
Their cell phones went off at the same time. Morris knew even before taking his out that the Titans were on the move again. He stifled a yawn. It was early morning now, and he hadn't gotten much sleep at all.
"Yes?"
Both Morris and Richard got the same story from their respective superiors. There was a large explosion in the sea about a mile west of the Teen Titans Tower. All officers not already on a different official task were to report. It was unorthodox, but Morris figured they had to be when dealing with an unorthodox problem such as this.
Morris grabbed his secondary sidearm, the Glock .20 and tossed Richard one of the custom made handguns that he favored so much. Twenty minutes later, both had their lightweight Kevlar weave body armor on and specialized helmets with built in communications and night vision specs. The department's garage was almost empty because most of the vehicles had already been taken. Thankfully, there was a squad car left, which they managed to use.
"Twenty bucks says those Titans are behind it," said Richard as they sped down the street, sirens blaring.
"You won't find any argument from me," said Morris. "Although I have no idea why they would do such a thing. What could they hope to gain by blowing up an empty boat in the middle of the water?"
The answer came to him about ten minutes later, when they arrived at the harbor.
By then, it was too late.
***
"We'll create a diversion, said Cyborg, pointing to the 3-D holographic projection of the Tower and surrounding geography that was being emitted from the projector in his right arm. His robotic finger came to rest on a coordinate that lay roughly a mile out from the main island. "An explosion perhaps. It doesn't really matter, as long as we can draw the majority of their forces away from the Tower. We should probably set off similar diversions at intervals farther and farther away from the Tower, to buy us some time."
Nightwing studied the projection. "Leave that to me," he said. At Raven's questioning look, he continued, "I have a pretty nice speedboat. It shouldn't be too much of a problem to sneak past whatever hasty sentry they've managed to scramble together. As for explosions, I've got a few flares that might do the trick. Torpedoes too, if it's the realistic path you gotta take."
"Uh, yeah, you take care of that," said Cyborg. He turned to the rest of his teammates. "As soon as Nightwing sets off the second flare-"
"Explosion," corrected Nighting. "I'll be using T-4 rockets, you should be able to hear and see the bang for miles."
"Explosion then." Cyborg was rather irritated at Nightwing's lack of seriousness, but he managed to keep that impulse under control. "Whatever. As soon as Nightwing sets off the second explosion, we move. It'll need to be fast, since we don't have much time until daylight."
"More likely than not, we're going to have a fight on our hands," said Raven. She removed her hood and circled around to get a better look at the hologram. "We try our best not to kill anybody, because sooner or later, we need to prove our innocence and having casualties on our heads won't help our case."
"Robin's life is the most important thing though," said Starfire. "If it comes down to a choice between taking Robin's life or the enemy's, there is no contest in my mind." She said this with such conviction that no one in the room said anything for a moment. She went on. "I saw him shot down, just like that. He was not threatening the lives of those policemen, yet for some reason they saw fit to kill him."
"Robin's not dead," Beast Boy reminded her.
"They intended for him to be," Sarfire retorted angrily. "That was a fatal shot, let us not pretend otherwise." The tears were back now, and Starfire hastily made an attempt to wipe them away.
Cyborg didn't know what to say to that. He'd never seen this side of Starfire before. This angry, almost passionately so, girl. Tense situations had a way of changing things indeed, so it seemed.
He reached to his arm and clicked off the projector. "Well then, lets move."
***
"That's what I call a Big Bang," muttered Richard as he, Morris, and several other officers watched the recorded footage of the explosion. The speakers had almost shorted out from the shockwave of sound that it had produced.
The woman who was showing them the video, a middle aged, yet quite attractive woman with stylishly graying hair and an entirely black outfit, turned the monitor off. "Hopefully, you all caught what it was that I did in this."
Morris eyed the Director. "It's kind of hard to tell given how dark it is, but there seems to be a ripple in the nearby water right before the explosion."
She gave him an appraising look. "Very good. Closer analysis shows that that ripple is most likely caused by an underwater projectile. Conclusion: someone set out a boat on the water and then launched a torpedo of some sort at it."
"It's the act of a crazed person, the arbitrary and senseless destruction of a boat," said a cultured, British voice from behind Morris somewhere.
"Perhaps," the Madame Director said. "Perhaps not. "Knowing this, you will now be boarding a patrol boat to assist in the investigation of-"
BANG . . . WHOOOSHHHHHHHH!
Morris blinked. Since they were located outside, it was easy to see the bright orange glow against the early morning sky. That and sound . . .it was identical to the first explosion, just a little farther off.
The Director, whose head had swiveled back suddenly at the explosion turned back to the group assembled before her. "You'd better hurry," she said.
***
"There!" whispered Beast Boy. "That was the second explosion.
"I see a good many boats heading out there," said Raven.
"Good," Cyborg muttered. "Now for phase two. I'll just tap a few buttons on this here keypad in my arm and . . . there we go. There was a brief spark of light, but that was it.
"Ummm, what did you do exactly?" asked Beast Boy. "I wasn't really paying attention when you explained it."
"It was a condensed Electro-Magnetic Pulse," Cyborg explained hastily. "It shuts down anything electronically operated, which is why I needed to fiddle around with all of your communicators and electronic equipment, to make modifications that would shield it from the effects of the EMP."
"So all of their electronic systems are worthless," summarized Starfire. She was carrying Robin, so she was constantly shifting her weight to compensate for his own added weight.
"Exactly." Cyborg checked the chronometer in his forearm. "Time is of the essence people, we have to get this wrapped up as quickly as possible."
***
"That's odd," said the patrol boat driver. He tried to start the vehicle again, but it did the same thing it had before. Absolutely nothing. "Dang thing must be busted again."
"Perhaps you should radio for another boat," someone said.
"Yeah. Uh, lets see here." The unusually short driver picked up the mike and depressed the broadcast switch. "104 to 5, we have a sitch here, the patrol boat doesn't seem to be-. Oh, crap." He disgustedly tossed away the mike, which did not work either.
Morris looked around. The hum of boat engines had stopped. The light from the powerful search beams were no longer present, as if they had shorted out.
He took his handheld mini-computer out of his pocket, testing the theory that was beginning to form in his mind. He pressed the 'on' button.
Nothing happened.
OK, now here's where I extend a warm 'thank you' to all you wonderful people who have reviewed. Thank you:
Kim, Oorta Dragoon, Apoctawizzit DOOM, kid titan, DBZ Chick 1, TriforceofWisdom, erin 11, Chain2, rammbo, Brat Monkee, SuNsHiNe10, DragonBlond, jillian4, Lenne's*Spirit, Sonic-Fan, Sk8terKittygirl, Pucca 1, Pisces Panda, and Arkady627, and anyone else who I might have accidentally left out.