10
Chapter 2
Everything and I mean EVERYTHING I see is in a type of thermal imaging. Every person and every object is at least outlined in a yellowish orange. The background is a bluish, purplish mess. A lot of the stuff is glowing in the same yellowish orange, some of it more then others, and pulsating to. The things that are glowing the brightest are the people. The people are glowing white. Hey, I can see the outline of other people in the store other then myself and the still fighting super heroes and villains. I can see a couple of people hunched over inside the register bays and some other people lying over in Men's.
"Hey, are they conscious?" I ask no one. "Huh, waaaait…!"
There are glowing strings going from BB, Star, and Raven. They look like they're going to all of those other people, including… me. Oh, crap! I really hope this doesn't mean what I think it does. It would explain why the Titans are losing, and I've seen WAAAAY to many Sci-Fi movies to truly think that this doesn't mean anything.
"Oh, man I hope this works!" I put my hand out pointing towards Cinderblock and envision what I want to have happen.
I can feel my newfound power flow through me and out towards some of the department's fixtures. I grab onto them and try to shape them into what I see when I close my eyes. I try to hold onto the image as long as I can, but it's becoming very difficult, very quickly. Soon I thought I could not keep the image in my head, and then all of a sudden it was like nothing could take it from me. I opened my eyes. Not twelve feet from me was what I had envisioned, a ten foot metallic spider made from most of the fixtures in the front of Men's and Sportswear. My spider is standing quite near Cinderblock.
"Whoa! Cool! I say to myself as a large grin spread across my face.
All of the super powered 'guests' stop what they're doing and look at they're new playmate. Ok, let's have some FUN!
I close my eyes and imagine that I AM the spider. I open them. What I see when I open them is Cinderblock's head.
"Whoa! Cooler!" I say to myself. Beast Boy, Starfire, and Raven really don't look good. I'm still not feelin to hot myself.
Before anyone can get their heads straight and get over the shock of my ten foot metal spider, I get to it. Right of the bat I smack Slade off Robin and out towards the huge hole in the wall at the front of Linens. He did not get up. Huh, so that's how they got in, that was the huge explosion I heard earlier. I can hardly believe Slade and Robin's fight got on top of the Men's fitting rooms. Those guys will fight anytime and take it anywhere and everywhere.
At the same time, I use three legs to begin pummeling Cinderblock. Man this guy is though! He puts up such a good fight I add another leg to fight him. I slam Cinderblock into ground and pin him there.
You'd think the Titans had never seen something like this. They're just standing around looking at my spider. Guess they got all the Slade-bots.
Ok, this is gettin old. "Rrraaahhh!" Cinderblock bellowed in frustration.
Time to finish this and go say 'Hi' ta the Titans. I focused everything I could into my new goal. Little bit easier this time. I think of what I want to have happen, point out my other hand. I lose the sight through my metal spider. My spider glows with black energy which turns it into large ribbons of metal. The ribbons slither all up and down Cinderblock to form a harness around his chest, binding his arms and legs to his side. I fuse the meal together so I don't have to concentrate on holding Cinderblock.
"Rrraaahhh!" again with the moaning, I love this guy's vocabulary.
"Uh… what just happened?" Cyborg asks.
"Wasn't me!" Raven says.
"Rrraaahhh!" Cries Cinderblock.
Aw, shudup!" I say. I make some of the metal of Cinderblock's new harness make its way up to his mouth. Ah, silence. Sorta.
"Cool it worked… again! Uh… that was me" I step out of the shadows and toward the nearest Titan, Beast Boy.
"Guuuys, get over here, quick!" Beast Boy yells.
"Don't worry Beast Boy. I'm a good guy." I say.
"Teen Titans, GO!" I hear.
Hey! What the… But I was helping them!
"Wait Robin, something's not right!" Raven says looking exhausted. Maybe I wasn't quick enough.
"Yes, Robin, wait! I am too weak to continue!" Starfire says, also looking exhausted.
Beast boy drops to his knees and throws up. "Gross. Um… dude, I'm feelin it to! Uck, I feel like I just got punched in the gut man!"
"Um, Beast Boy, you did." I say to BB. He's over in the middle of Men's. I hover a few inches off the ground and quickly fly over to help. Fly? I can fly! Coooool!
"Oh yeah! Hey wait a sec!" Beast Boy yells.
I look around. I'm surrounded. They all musta rushed over to BB when he yelled. Man they're fast! Everyone's ready to whoop me into next weak. Cyborg's got his Sonic Cannon pointed at me; Robin's in a striking tiger stance or somethin; Starfire's hovering a few feet in the air with her hands and eyes glowing; and Ravin's doin the same. Starfire and Raven look tired and their glowing is kinda dim
"I'd be really careful what you make your next move." Robin states bluntly.
"Aaaawe maaan! Um, OK. Everybody just chill out. I'm just tryin to help!" I say.
"Just back away from our friend!" Raven says. I do as she says. I really don't want to see her pissed off.
"C'mon guys. It's cool. HEY!" BB says.
They all had gotten close enough that I could put them all in a dome of Raven's power. Man, I DON'T want to do this. I concentrate and easily make a black energy dome around the Titans. I keep this energy dome active by firing black energy from my hand at it.
"OK! REALLY not what I had in mind!" Yup, another great move bright eyes!
"Hey, let us GO!" Robin yells as he pounds his fists on the dome.
"Yeah, come on man! I don't wanna fight you!" Cyborg says as he bangs on the dome to. He had changed his cannon back to an arm. Interesting.
"Cheah! That's what it looked like!" I say sarcastically.
"Umm… well…!" Cyborg says, shrugging sheepishly.
"Yup. Nice to hear Cyborg. By the way Robin, the energy you're beating on is the same as Raven's. In other words, you can stop that now. Beast Boy, Starfire, Raven are you guys feeling any better?" I say.
"How do you know all our names, and how can you be so calm? Most people freak out when the building they're in starts to be destroyed." Robin asks.
"I guess I'm that kind of special." I say.
My stomach and head still hurt a bit. The pain has been at a pretty steady level since I started using Raven's abilities. I hope this doesn't last very much longer.
"Yeah I do feel a little better, stomach still hurts though" Beast Boy says.
"I am feeling very much better now, thank you. May we please be let go now so we may go home, please?" Starfire asks.
"I'll be fine." Raven says.
"Cool. Very glad to hear that. I'd hoped that'd work. Actually Robin, to be honest, I think there's a more important question that needs answering right now." I say.
"Like how you can use our powers?" Beast Boy asks.
"Or, maybe. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON AND CAN WE PLEASE GET OUTA THIS DOME?" Cyborg yells.
"Well, I was thinking that 'where'd Slade go?' would kinda top anything any of you guys could come up with." I replied.
"WHAT!" Robin yells.
All of them whirl around to where Slade had landed. He was not there.
"Let us out, we can handle him." Robin says.
"If my suspicions are correct, so can I." I say.
I hope this'll work to. I jump in the air, and actually soar almost to the ceiling! "Oop! Ok… lets try this again. Everyone hold on cuz here we go." I mumble. I think to fly through the hole in the wall where the fire exit used to be while simultaneously turning the energy dome into a sphere and taking the Titans with me.
"Cool, it worked… again! Why is that still a surprise to me?" I say to myself shrugging.
I zoom down from the ceiling, through the fire exit and into the side parking lot.
"CRAP! This looks like crater city!" I yell.
I (we) get out into the parking lot in time to see Slade speed off on a Honda Interceptor ABS motorcycle.
"Wow! Cool byke! I say to myself as I fallow Slade. "Uhhhnn!" Man, I'm starting to understand why Raven needs to meditate. It's getting harder to maintain my concentration and my joints are starting to ach a bit more.
"-for the next two months!"
"-would not be well thought of on my home world!"
"-trion Zinthos."
"- enjoy the ride.
"-me for a second!"
"Wha? Uh, sorry guys! Wha'd you all say? Kinda preoccupied here" I asked daring to glance at the sphere I was sill dragging behind me.
"I saaaid, if you let me go I'll buy you all the pizza you can eat for the next two months!" Beast Boy said. "And what could you be soooo preoccupied with?"
"People with power like yours, who act like you would not be very well thought of on my home world!" Starfire says. "Why must I repeat myself, did he not hear me the first time?" Starfire asks BB, BB shrugs.
"Azrath, Metrion, Zinthos." Raven continuously repeats.
"I don't know what ya'll are whinnin about. For once we're not runnin our tails off goin after this dude! I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy the ride." Cyborg says. "And-"
He continues on… about… something. This is still kinda blowin my mind here. Slade must have some kind of inter-dimensional teleporter, or something. But why? Man, its really starting to get hard to concentrate!
"C'mon! No one likes repeating themselves. Besides, we don't have a lot of time. We can work this out! You DON"T have to do this! If you'd just listen to me for a second!" Robin says.
"Fine, start talking. Raven STOP doing that!" I reply.
"Listen, Slade is our responsibility. You don't have to get involved. All you have to do is let us go, walk away, or fly away looks puzzled and we'll take it from here!" Robin says.
Robin seams to make a lot of sense with not much effort, no wonder he's the one in charge. But he doesn't have all the facts, well, neither do I, but still!
"Sorry Robin I can't do that. More than half your team depends on it." I say.
We've gone well into downtown by now, an industrial district it looks like. Slade made a few attempts to lose me, but seeing as how I'm flying and I'm fairly high up it didn't work to well.
"We know Slade, you don't. We'll have a better-" Robin starts.
"Robin, do you agree that when Slade is involved time is ALWAYS of the essence?" I interrupt, getting slightly irritated.
"Man, dramatic much!" BB mumbles. Starfire giggles, the rest of them seam a little irritated as well. Don't blame 'em of course, I would be to if I were them.
"Yeah, always. But how do you-" Robin starts again.
"I'll let you and Cyborg go-"
"AWWWE, MAAAAN! JUST WHEN I WAS GETTING INTO THE RIDE!" Cyborg whines when he hears this. "But ya'll DO got tons a pizza joints I wouldn't mind tryin out!"
"-but I need to keep the others where they are… for now. But we need to hurry, more then you know is at risk! AND RAVEN, WOULD YOU PLEASE CUT THAT OUT!" I yell.
"No!" Raven says.
The aching has gotten decidedly worse and has been joined by an all encompassing pins and needles. It feels like what I would imagine a full body charley horse might be like. Fortunately my concentration hasn't gotten any worse. YA! JOY! This is a REAL good trade!
"Fine. Land and let me and Cyborg out." Robin says.
"No Robin! You can not help this eerie man of badness! He has our powers!" I hear Starfire whisper.
"Actually he has Raven's, yours, and BB's powers." Cyborg whispers.
"I noticed that to. I think I might know why. We have no choice; none of us can break this sphere of his. So we have to play by his rules, for now. Besides, Slade probably knows we're coming, he always does. We have to be able to attack from more then one position if we need to." Robin whispers back.
"Are you sure we should trust him?" Raven asks
"Yes, Raven, I am. He doesn't have to let any of us go to begin with." Robin says. "Oh, and you should probably do as he asks."
"Yeah. Sure." Raven says.
As soon as Raven stops chanting my pins and needles stopped and the aching begins to slowly subside.
While they're talking I take us all down as slowly and gently as possible. When I was in the air I saw Slade pull into a warehouse off a short distance away. Huh, might be able to take Slade alone, but I do have possible allies, but they're probably not very happy with me. What to do, what to do. Guess we better talk, get that whole trust thing goin. Or at least get to the point where they're NOT pissed at me. Probably should make it quick though.
As soon as we land I make the sphere into a dome once more. I make an archway big enough so that Robin and Cyborg can get out. I have to close it quickly though because Beast Boy changes into a rabbit and makes a mad dash for the archway.
"Sorry Beast Boy, really!" I say.
"Then let me go!" Beast Boy yells.
I turn to Robin and Cyborg. Cyborg has turned his forearm into his Sonic Cannon. NOT GOOD.
"ME! WHAT ABOUT US!" I hear Starfire and Raven scream. They begin to chase Beast Boy. I enlarge the dome to give BB a chance. I imagine at this point in the cartoon they'd all be SD (super deformed) versions of themselves and it'd be a 'funny moment'.
"Question one: who are you?" Robin asks.
"The name is Andrew. Hi." I reply.
I hear a large animal growling in the background and girls screaming.
"Question two: how do you know our names and about Slade?" Robin asks.
"Uh, well. I'm not so sure I should answer that." I reply.
"I am." Cyborg says.
A chicken cries loudly in the background as Raven and Star begin firing at it.
"It's ok Cyborg. Why don't you want to answer that?" Robin asks.
"Uh, that's a conversation we oughta save for later. Trust me on this one." I say.
"Question three: you got a mirror?" Robin asks with a smirk on his face.
