Chapter 2: Turbinski's story
By Ms. Kinnikufan
Disclaimer: All characters copyrighted their owners.
Note () indicate translated Russian.
Note 2: Robin's awkward grammar in some parts of the story is not a typo. He just speaks lousy Russian.
Turbinski realized he was no longer in the junkyard. The junkyard was humid and smelled of rancid meat. This place was pleasantly cool and had an almost minty scent. He sensed no more pain.
Could he have made it into heaven?
He could hear voices, though his eyes weren't completely opened.
"Brain waves are increasing."
"Beast Boy, stop poking him with that stick! It's disrespectful!"
"I'll stop when he's fully conscious!"
6 faces came into view: an orange face girl's. a pale skin girl's. a green face boy's, a relatively normal looking boy's, an almost gothic man's with glowing blue eyes, and a black cyborg's.
"Welcome back man." greeted the black cyborg.
Turbinski almost immediately went into panic mode (the mode of choice for people who have just come out of comas).
Turbinski alternated shouted these phrases in incoherent english, russian and Japanese (Kobe dialect): "Who the hell are you people?", "Where am I?" "Are you with them?"
He hopped out of the bed and tried to transform, but he fall flat on his face. Darkness surrounded him once more.
He saw the same concerned faces when he awoke again. He felt strangely lethargic and relaxed.
"What have you done to me?" Turbinski's words came out in russian and at a slow speed.
("Comrade Turbinski, we have give you tranquilizer so you not freak out." ) the normal looking boy answered in very poor russian.
"How do you know my name? Who are you people? Your russian is the lousiest I've ever heard!"
("Fixit heard men refer to you as 'Comrade Turbinski'. We assume that your name is 'Comrade Turbinski'. We are Teen Titans. Believe us please when we say mean no harm. I am Robin. She is Starfire (Robin indicated the orange girl). She is Raven (Robin indicated the pale girl) He is Beast Boy (he indicated the green boy holding a stick). They are Fixit and Cyborg (Robin indicated the man with glowing blues eyes and the black Cyborg). They fix you good. Can you speak english? Mine Russian is bad, especially in terms grammar of.")
"You sedated me? You performed surgery on me? Do any of you even have a medical degree?" Turbinski switched to english (the boy's russian was pure torture) and his sedation was quickly wearing off.
"Well, not officially. But my parents insisted I get medical training. Plus Fixit can give both S.T.A.R. Labs and Lexcorp a run for their money any day." Cyborg scratched his neck.
"Good God, your first thought were to bring me here instead of taking me to a doctor? I don't even think what you did was legal!" It was clear the the sedatives had worn off.
"Well, when you ran to the states, did you go through all the proper procedural?" Raven asked.
Turbinski poked his fingers together and mumbled incoherently.
"I rest my case."
"Well S.T.A.R.Labs is still being reconstructed. Besides both I and Cyborg both have experience treating medical wounds. As for legality...ever since our mayor's recent gay sex scandal, we could be selling arms to politically tense countries and none would notice. Actually quite disturbing when you think about it." explained Robin.
"We did the best we could, man." Cyborg rubbed his neck.
Turbinski had an unnerving thought.
"Wait does anyone know that I'm here? Because if anyone in the government or the media knows I'm here, I've got to fly my ass out of here or all our lives could be in danger!"
"But my diagnosis shows that you are not fit to participate in any strenuous activity for at least a month. Perhaps even two or three months. Thus, 'flying your ass out of here' would only endanger your health." Fixit commented.
"My Goddamn health and everyone else's health is going to be a lot worse if those who created me find out I'm not dead!"
"Calm down! Turbinski, none knows your here except those standing in the room-"
"And Silkie!" added Starfire.
"And Silkie. But he can't talk due to the fact that he's sort of a mutated maggot. As I mention earlier, our mayor's gay sex scandal pretty much ate all of the media coverage."
"That is good to know. You people have any food?"
"Oh! I have made some fresh Zorg Zuum stew just this morning!" Starfire bought a pot of stew into the infirmary room. The Titans (excluding Fixit, who didn't need to eat) huddled together in a corner.
"Normally it's serve with Zoob Zoob, but finding fresh-"
Starfire's comment about the difficulty of finding fresh bilinikites was interrupted by Turbinski consuming the stew in one large slurp.
"Jesus Christ, when did you last have a decent meal?" Cyborg stared in horror as Turbinski began licking the pot.
"How long was I out?"
"Almost 2 weeks."
"Unless you would like to count dirt or dubious plant life, about a month, a week and two days."
"How did you managed to survive?"
"To be honest I have no idea. I guess it maybe had something to do with me being part airplane."
"And just how did you end up getting beaten up in a junkyard?"
"Well, to fully explain that, I will have to go back to my very beginnings:
About 23-24 years ago (it was never documented exactly how long ago it was), a baby was bought by a dodgy Russian government agency from a corrupt Russian orphanage.
As you' have probably have guessed, the government agency had very few ethics. As the baby grew, the government agency turned me into a human/airplane hybrid. As well as being turn into an airplane cyborg, they raised me into being a happy, smiling on the outside propaganda tool, as well as using me in some experiments that you don't want to know the details of. At 15 years old, I had enough and ran..errr flew away. I crash landed in Brazil training camp for young Chojins-"
"Chojins? What are chojins?"
"They're what Americans call "meta-humans" or "super-powers". Pretty much everyone else calls them "chojins".
Anyway, I made a new friend named Ricardo there. I wouldn't see him until many years later and after his mental condition had been greatly diminished. Anyway, Master Pa-Shango(he was the trainer of this camp) called the authorities and they took me back. That's when they installed a radar bug in me, which I later had to take out with a rusty knife.
"That explains why we had to remove this from your side" Fixit held a rusty knife in his arms.
"Anyway flash forward about 6 years later. A Japanese event called the Chojin Crown came up. The Russian government then cut a deal with me: win the Chojin Crown and they would let me be free. Apparently, me winning the Chojin Crown would make the government put out more money to make more like me.
Long story short, I didn't win. So I remained in the hand of the government agency that created me. Then over a month ago, they said they were transferring me to a secret base in Antarctica. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have seen that it was an obvious trap.
They tried to assassinate me, I fled. After a month or so of cat and mouse, they cornered me in the Jump City Junkyard, where your friend Fixit found me. Now I'm here, telling you my tale."
"Oh my! That is horrible! Simply horrible! Poor, poor Comrade Turbinski!" Starfire squeezed the airplane chojin.
"You're...hurting me." Turbinski mumbled.
"You have any idea why they were trying to kill you?" Robin had a bad feeling that there was some sort of conspiracy going on.
"I don't know. I guess they wanted to get rid of me so they could fund some sort of other project. While passing out, I heard one of the agents talk to another about something or someone named 'Terra'-"
"Terra! What do you know about Terra?" Beast Boy leapt into action and began to shake Turbinski.
"Beast Boy. I believe your shaking Turbinski is doing even greater damage to Turbinski's recovery then Starfire's hug." Fixit commented monotonously. Starfire blushed.
"I don't know anything about Terra. I only heard them talk about someone or something called Terra. I was half-conscious at the time, for all I know they could have really been talking about turnips!"
"C'mon on man, tell us what you know! A week after we found you, we went to give Terra her weekly polishing and she wasn't even there! What do you know?" Beast Boy continue to shake Turbinski.
"Polish?" Turbinski wonder why a girl would need a weekly polishing.
"Beast Boy, he really doesn't know anything! Stop shaking him!" It took the Titans combined strength to pull Beast Boy off Turbinski, who was now going swirly eyed.
"But...but Terra's missing." Beast Boy was misty eyed.
"I know. I know. But shaking Turbinski isn't going to help us find her." Robin calmly patted Beast Boy's shoulder.
"It couldn't hurt."
"Da, it does." Turbinski tried to rid himself of the swirly eyes.
"Titans, Let's go to the meeting room." Robin announced.
The meeting room:
"I think he knows something, but he's not telling us!" Beast Boy was unusually tense.
"Beast Boy, we do not know if that's true or not. However, judging by Turbinski's fear of those who had beat him, I think something corrupt is up. Maybe Turbinski doesn't know what exactly happened to Terra, but I believe he still may be able to help us find out what happened to her. It appears the dodgy agency that created him may have taken her. I think we should let him stay here-"
"But he could lying about the whole thing Robin!" Beast Boy argued.
"My empathetic abilities tell me otherwise. Also, I very briefly checked his mind out. I could stay there for less then two minutes before I got disturbed beyond belief. More-so then I already am. Apparently his childhood was even more angsty and horrific then he's letting on. His fear is real. He doesn't want to go back to where he was. He's happy to be free from them. I say we should let him stay with us, even though he is technically an illegal immigrant." Raven explained.
"Oh, we can simply not let our funny speaking new friend Turbinski be homeless! That would be horrible!" Starfire also voted to let Turbinski stay.
"Cyborg, what are your thoughts?"
"I just don't think we should let him wander around the streets. What if this agency tries to reclaim him? Then where we will be? Nowhere man."
"Fixit?"
"Why are you asking him, he doesn't even live here. He lives in a creepy underground lab where the sun doesn't shine and it smells like junk and has very few social skills and-"
"Oh my, Beast Boy. How very embarrassing for you to say that while I'm in the same room. You little beee-yotch." Fixit commented in his usual calm monotone manner.
Everyone stared at Fixit.
"Fixit, I know you're knew at conversing with other people and stuff-but remember: bitch is the insult for females, bastard or asshole is the insult for males." Cyborg explained.
Fixit gave a little cough: "I think you should Turbinski something else to eat. He was chewing on the pot when we left the infirmary."
So it was decided: despite Beast Boy's protests, Turbinski would resides at Titans Tower until something else was figured out.
They went back to the infirmary.
"Turbinski, we were talking about your situation. How would you like to stay here and help us with our search for Terra by revealing information about the agency that created and later betrayed you?" Robin offered.
"Betray and possible destroy my bosses? Dare I live the American Dream? Hell, da I do!" Turbinski agreed to the Titan's offer.
Russia, a secret base:
"So Slade...It appears that the rumors or your death have been greatly exaggerated."
"Call me Deathstroke or Terminator. Those are the names I kill with."
"Well, anyway, Deathstroke-or-Terminator, you see the offer before you."
"Yes. Kill this businessman called Pumpinator, a.k.a. Max Sneagator Addida, and kidnap and bring his daughter, Ny'ke Grande Alisa Hope Addida to you. I want to know, are you asking me to bring you this little girl to you so you can rape her or sell her to people who will rape her?"
"Slade, I mean Deathstroke-or-Terminator, you know our background: we deal in many things that are considered "wrong" and "immoral", but child prostitution is one thing we don't do."
"I must know one other thing: why kill this businessman? What wrong has he done to you?'
"Well it's more of a thing he has done to our allies in the D.M.P. He wouldn't let the D.M.P. have his child. He choose instead to raise his child 'normally'. The D.M.P. believes the child would be much better off if they were to raise her. They would bring out her true potential as a fighter."
"I believe in that. Very well then, I will take the job."
Russian, a much lower level, same secret base, around the same time,the lab:
Scientists were surrounded by the "de-fossilizing" tube which hold Terra.
"Well Comrades, it's about time she de-fossilizing. It been 5 weeks and God only knows how much money has been spent on her!"
"I propose a toast!" A different scientist pulled out a secret bottle of Vodka and began to pass around shot glasses.
"Yes, a toast! To finally getting this part of the damn project done! Here Here!" one scientist lifted his shot glass to the air.
"Yes, Here Here!" All the scientists (plus the janitor, who snuck some) raised their shot glasses in the air.
Terra awoke in the tube, floating in water and staring at the crowd of scientists before her.
Where Am I? she thought.