Flashing Lights and Sounds
By Jedi-and
Disclaimer: I do not own TT, nor do I own Mr. Noel Collins or Robert Candide, but I DO own my own characters.
Chapter 15: All in a Day's Work
Needless to say, Cyborg wasn't the happiest of campers.
Getting together with Noel, the pair planed an escape for Viridian from her Gotham prison. Using what influence he could muster (which wasn't much when virtually all the world knew you only as "the whip using member of that teen superhero squad that's always causing trouble), Noel and Raven pulled up the building plans for the labs that created her and began to make a plan.
"The hardest part of this will be to go in without Robin finding out, as you are in Batman's territory, and he knows everything. I mean EVERYTHING." Noel said, unrolling a blueprint of the 7th floor of the WayneTech building in Gotham City.
"Stop it with the hero worship." Raven scolded as she placed the final item in Cyborg's back pack.
"It's not hero worship, just simple advice. We'd go with you, but if half of his team left Robin might get suspicious. But if you go on your own, then he could chalk it up to a personal mission or, sorry to say, returning trauma." Noel said, indicating to a dark event in the Teen Titans' past that was best left forgotten. He placed the map on the small table in Raven's room, as no one would go into her room without permission. No one would even dare think it.
"Gee. Thanks." Cyborg said darkly, experiencing a twinge as an old pain reasserted itself and reminded him that it would never be totally gone.
"Sorry."
"Anyway, the guards have a tendency to rotate, but they won't do it without eye contact with his or her predecessor, so if you get in, you have to be prepared for trouble." Raven said, pointing to the map. There were red circles with little dashes on them to show them the most likely way the guard would be facing.
"Gee, you sure thought of everything, eh Rae? Have you been playing Hitman: Contracts?" Noel asked lightly, looking over the page.
"We'd best keep to the matter at hand." She continued on. "The only place that is vulnerable is at the back entrance on the bottom floor. But you'll still need a distraction, which is where I come in." She pulled out a red poloneck and black denim pants, perfectly normal looking. "I'll be dressed as a civilian and will run up and scream for help. When their heads are turned, you sneak up and get inside. If they give chase to me I will go down an alleyway and warp back to the tower."
"After that, you are on your own." Savior told him, pointing to a part of the map that was labelled 'point of no return'. "After this point it's either mission success or bust, as you are too far into the place to get out again without being seen. We've placed a Security Guard uniform in your bag that can be useful, just be careful, as if they get too close they will read the numbers on the pocket and find that it's a fake."
"Why do I feel like some super spy?" Cyborg asked, having a closer look at the map.
"Because you are doing something James Bond would do and the fact while this is supposed to be planned in a few months, this has been planned in about an evening or two..." Noel replied. "...Got to love improvisation." He added, thought it was clear from his tone that he didn't.
"Gee thanks for the warm confident feeling."
"The rest is written down in this book, good luck Double O Seven and a half."
And so he started the mission he had chosen to accept. And no, nothing blew up within five seconds of him accepting it, except maybe a few tempers...
"Alright I'm here." Cyborg said as he snuck around the side of the building and watched the back entrance, he saw too guards. "Alright, Rae, when you're ready."
In the other direction, Raven waited, dressed as a normal person with her hair done in pigtails. The turtleneck she didn't mind, in fact she actually liked it, but it was the pigtails that really annoyed her. Savior was getting far too into this super spy thing. She began to wonder if he had something for Jinx, maybe the next time they were together she'd utilize his distraction to do a mind read and...right, task at hand.
And so the young sorceress plastered a look of fear on her usually calm face and sighed. Once more into the breach dear friends, once more.
"Hey! Help! Oh god someone please help me!" She shouted down the alleyway, running like a girly-girl who had just seen their favourite pop star. When she reached the startled guards, she panted as if she was out of breath (While in actuality Raven could probably run a mile, but she had to put on a good act). Looking up, she grabbed one of the guards by the arms. "You have to help me, these men, they were chasing me!" She called. "Please, help! I need to get to my car!" She pleaded, leaning into them as if she had run out of energy. Raven is proving to be a surprisingly good actress.
"Alright. Go with her." One guard said to the other. Raven cursed inwardly at the fact only one of them was following her, but as soon as she got around the corner, some luck had actually befallen her, as a group of thugs where actually trying to wreck a car, probably to get at the in car entertainment, or ICE as it was known in car modifying circles (Uh, not that I'd actually know about anything about grand theft auto, whistles), and because of the size of the group he had to call for backup anyway, which left the door unprotected for a brief moment.
All the man-machine needed.
Being surprisingly stealthy for someone his size, Cyborg managed to sneak in relatively unnoticed and straight up the stairs to the men's bathroom. Well, things seem to be going his way for once. Once he hit that room, he was past the point of no return. Now it was sink or swim, and failure wasn't an option.
But there was one thing he hadn't thought of. As he opened his bag with the uniform in it, he noticed something a little unusual.
A hamster. Or rather a GREEN hamster.
"Yo dude." It whispered, before it slipped out and transformed into Beast Boy, all ready to be stealthy in what looked like a Solid Snake outfit. Shame it had so many metallic clips and buckles on it that it kind of jingled when he walked.
"Say what?!" Cyborg shouted, before he realised that loud outbursts of noise were most likely detrimental for what he was trying to accomplish. "What are you doing here?" He demanded, more in a whisper than before.
"Simple, I've come to help. Can't you tell with my super spy kit?" He showed him a lot of useless gadgets. Cyborg wasn't impressed.
"BB, this is a serious thing going on." He stated, rubbing his face into his palm. This was the LAST thing he needed.
"I am serious. Look, I heard what happened and I want to get her back, or at least let her go free." Gar turned towards his friend, as he pulled out of the bag two security guard uniforms, both matching the light browns and cream colours the others wore. "If your best friend can't support you, who can?" He smirked at Cyborg, who smiled back.
"Let's show them what super spies we are!"
Soon enough, the pair walked out of the bathroom, Beast Boy wearing a face-fitting mask to hide his green skin. Why did he buy it? Hey, you can't be a super hero without an alternative identity, and being green doesn't leave many opportunities where your identity can't be found out. Unfortunately, he was scammed and the mask doesn't look very convincing, but in the dark it couldn't be a problem. And so the pair, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, marched down the hallways and went up the elevator to the seventh floor.
They said it was easy.
Once they reached the seventh floor however, things started to get a little more difficult. The plans that Savior had managed to get were, to say the least, a little dated. What it showed on the plans was a large room in the centre of the structure with multiple ways into it, and that large room was the laboratory itself, with a guard or two, however... As it is the way with all well laid plans, it kind of went pear shaped.
"Dude, there is only one way in..." Beast Boy stated, taking off his mask momentarily to wipe the sweat from his brow. That mask was so hot it was unreal.
"Plus there are a lot more guards..." Cyborg muttered, as he snuck up to a corner and looked around briefly to see a guard standing there, ever watchful. "Okay BB, I'll knock on the wall and distract him, then you knock him out and take his keys."
Beast Boy nodded and gave Cyborg his security guard's hat, then jumped up onto the wall and transformed into a spider. Luckily the guard wasn't arachnophobic, as they supposedly had wonderful peripheral vision, according to comedian Phil Jupitus. With relative ease, he got to the other side of the door and waited. Cyborg started to knock on the wall.
No response.
Again.
No response.
Again, but a little harder. .
Again, the same response, as in none. What our poor cybernetic friend had neglected to notice was that our guard here was wearing frameless headphones and listening to his walkman as the Titan relentlessly attacked the wall to try and gain his attention. Unfortunately for the guard, the wall wasn't as solid as it seemed, and when Cyborg banged it with quite a bit of strength, it started to crack. This crack, which Cyborg traced with his eyes, went up the wall, along the ceiling and connected with a previous fault in said roof. This caused a chunk of the wall to come down on the guard with the walkman.
"Um... You still want me to take his keys?" Beast Boy asked as they moved on through the door, to the next guard.
A few steps down the corridor was another guard. This one had actually seen Victor, so Gar thought of something quickly and rummaged around in the bag. He pulled out a soft drink can, probably cola of some kind, and shook it violently (out of sight of the guard of course).
"Hey man, how goes it?" Victor asked as he made his way down the corridor, taking the can from his green friend.
"You new here?" The guard asked, a little incredulous at the fact someone so young was working as a security guard. He didn't trust the ocular implants Cyborg had either.
"Yeah, well I have to work off this new eye somehow." He joked, and passed the can to the guard. I suppose it was rather fortunate that Viridian was taken to Gotham City, as if it had been a lab in Jump City, they would have recognized him straight away. "Seein' as we aren't allowed beer, how about a little cola to keep ya going?"
The guard was hesitant at first, but the night had been incredibly dry. In Jump City the general atmosphere was wet as hell, but here the rain didn't seem to want to come that evening.
"Yeah, sure. Why not?" He smiled and took the can.
He wasn't smiling for very long however because as soon as he opened it, it sprayed all over his face, and most painful of all, right into his open eyes. Roaring in pain, he stepped back a little and dropped the can. Cyborg went to "help", while Beast Boy snaked his keys.
"Why don't they just have one key for every door?" He complained, shifting through the real keys and the key cards to find the right one.
"They obviously had another break in and put in more doors and guards to stop it from happening again." He replied, having now knocked out the guard. Beast Boy got the door open in the end. The pair was soon going to reach their goal.
Inside the lab, Viridian hung like a cow carcass in a butcher shop, awaiting her fate. She knew what her fate was, because as inhuman as she appeared she still had a very human trait. A thinking mind. She was very aware of what was happening around her.
And the fact that she was hanging from one wrist while the other hung lifelessly is more uncomfortable than previously imagined. Despite the lack of taste buds or emotions, she may have had a distasteful feeling in her mouth right about now.
"So THIS is the runaway project." A short, balding man said as he approached her. She knew who he was. Mr Phelps. He snarled at he as he pulled a cigarette from his overly damp lips, a string of saliva dangling from the end.
"Yes sir, we were able to find her due to the efforts of the Titan's leader, Robin." A tall but surprisingly ratty looking man said as he stood behind who appeared to be his boss. He had messy red hair and was quite dishevelled in appearance.
"So the Titans finally came to their senses. Well that is a good thing. What is its name again?" He came closer to Viridian, a pair of hollow, sunken eyes staring closer at the machine. If she felt things, she may have felt a little uncomfortable, someone invading her personal space like this.
"Viridian, sir."
"Well I'm not expected to know every little project's pet name now am I?" He asked, but it was more like an angry statement, the way bosses manage. "When we start mass producing you, my dear mechanical femme, we will have an army greater than most of the military."
"How do we going to get them to buy these things?" The scientist asked, going around his boss a little. As little more then a lowly worker bee, he wasn't really privy to all the information, but seeing as this particular scientist had made sure that Viridian's creator, her 'father', if you would, wouldn't interfere in any plans, he was allowed some knowledge.
"Simple, we use this proto-type to start a small skirmish." He smirked, at what he assumed was genius. In actuality, it was more like genocide. "Then, the military unable to touch such a fast lil' bitch, will ask us to make these jumped up microwaves to fight it. Once they see it in action, we'll sell them as many as they want. Hell, we practically runs the damn world anyway, why not give it a nudge in the right direction?" He placed the cigarette back in his mouth before relighting it, as the ambers had gone out in the time he was talking and not smoking.
"Indeed that is a... patriotic plan, however what would happen if something goes wrong?"
"We'll deny the whole damn thing. After all, if they defeat it we can say it went haywire." The boss turned around and looked at the parts on the table. "Then we pay off whoever sues and start over. So boost everything to max, this time there will be no chance of her running away like a lost little girl!" He turned and shouted, saliva and ash flying from his mouth, landing on the scientist's light-coloured shirt.
"Yes sir. We've doubled the guards and placed booby traps and sensors all around the area. If she tries to get out, we'll know."
"It's not her getting out that worries me." He said lightly, before leaving out via the back door. This door was a huge reinforced steel lift that led to one place and one place only. The manager's office.
"Well, it is a matter of perspective." The scientist said as he followed. "She will be ready within a few days, maybe less."
"Good, line up potential buyers as well." And with that, the doors shut.
Only to have the other door open quickly at the other end of the room. Cyborg wandered in, dragging a guard via tucking his head carefully under his arm, using his other arm to hold his eyelids open. All the retinal scanner needs is an eye, doesn't mean the person has to be conscious.
"Yo! She's here!" Beast Boy shouted, ripping his mask off one last time. "Finally! Man I COULDN'T BREATHE!" He shouted, throwing the mask down and stomping on it. "Die! Die!"
"Oh joy. I don't know what is worse, the fact my betrayers have come to save me or the fact that it's him..." Viridian said to herself. Is being mass produced really that bad in comparison to spending several weeks in the company of the green Titan who had obviously had more than one cup of coffee when he got up in the morning.
Coffee, milk, 29 sugars, that is
"Well, isn't that gratitude." Beast Boy said as he walked past the equipment, plans and more spare parts. Cyborg dropped the 'sleeping' guard and made his way over to Viridian.
"Just so you know, it wasn't us who betrayed you." Cyborg said as he reached up and ripped off the manacles around her wrist.
"It was your leader." She replied, finally touching the floor. A crude mock up of its original had replaced the arm that had been previously destroyed. Unlike the other arm, which had a covering, the scientists had yet to replace her clothing and so the arm had no such covering over it. Cyborg stood there for a moment, not answering the statement that had ushered from her lips. If it had been Robin, if Raven had been right about her feelings, then how could he trust him anymore? How could a person even contemplate trusting someone who betrayed an innocent with the lives and souls of their friends?
How could they trust him as the leader of the Titans?
His thoughts where interrupted as Beast Boy caught their attention.
"Look at this thing!" He shouted, jumping up and on top of what looked like a see through gun cabinet. Inside was her rifle, and not only that, There was also what looked like a covering for an arm, and mounted on that was some nasty looking blades, long thin ones that seemed to jut out like claws, or more precisely insectile claws. There were also lots of other paraphernalia, including the remains of what looked like a club.
"Hey! That was the White Hole's club! How'd the HELL did they get this?!" Cyborg demanded as Viridian followed him over, her face never anything but a picture of perfect serenity.
"Ebay." She replied lightly.
"Oh."
"These are weapons they have created using the ideas behind other ideas and technologies." She stated, leaning forward to take a closer look. "The claw is designed for a more powerful version of me."
"Say what?!" Cyborg said, surprise coming across his face, while Beast Boy fell off the top of the cupboard. Though when you think about it, Viridian isn't that strong of an android. On the contrary, she is probably quite weak as androids go because she was designed for accuracy, and you don't need to be powerful if you have the accuracy to get a person where they count. She was designed as more of an assassin, rather than a warrior.
But still, the mind boggles.
"I overheard their plans for me. If you have truly come to rescue me, then please help me download all the files concerning my design." She turned from them and ambled gently over to a consol. "I want to remain the only Viridian." With nothing more than a shrug they marched over to the consol. What is the point of being free if they can make more of you? What is the point of being free if everyone fears your face? That wasn't freedom, that was hell, and this was one 'tool' that was fighting back!
Shame the whole thing was caught on camera really. More a shame as now guards, who had not noticed Cyborg's previous break in, were awoken by the sound of the motion alarms under the floor Viridian had been hanging over, meaning when she dropped to the floor, she set them off. This in turn lead them to press the silent alarm which meant a personalized SWAT team for WayneTech arrived on the scene, armed to the back teeth with all sorts of weaponry to disable anything from the living, to the mechanical and right the way through to the down right deceased (and those things showed up more often then one would think). And no, I'm not going to make jokes about them being in the scouts and being prepared because they aren't weak, most of the scouts I know could kick serious arse. One even went into the Royal Marines.
Cool huh?
Yes I am British, how did you know?
Anyway, back up in the lab they had managed to download what little information they could. In all fairness, there was enough information here to slow down the super computers at IBM and Microsoft, so seeing as they were finding specific information regarding one android and downloading it into Cyborg and Viridian, I think they got quite a lot, well at least enough.
"Freeze!" One of the guards shouted as they poured into the room. By this time, the Titans had discarded their masquerade and had returned to their original, more famous, attire. This, unfortunately, was a tactical mistake as now they had to fight their way out of the situation, rather than think their way out of it.
Actually...
"Well it's about time!" Cyborg stated, folding his arms in an impatient manner. Cyborg never could really look angry on a whim, so he went for the next best thing, slightly irked and impatient.
"Beg your pardon?" One of the guards asked, his gun lowering a little as he looked around to see if anyone else got the idea. The other guards, who had arrived on the scene before the personalised SWAT team had turned up, had that same, slightly confused expression.
"We have been here hours!" He continued. Beast Boy and Viridian were both a little confused, but they had every confidence in their friend. Alright, perhaps not every confidence but enough. "We were wondering when you would show and quite frankly your performance was appalling."
"Uh-yeah!" Beast Boy added, finally twigging the idea. Perhaps these overnight security guards could be fooled, and so they could be let go before any backup arrived.
"If we were real criminals, we could have gotten in and out within a matter of moments." Viridian finally got in on the act, walking forward.
"Aren't you supposed to be locked up?" One of the guards asked, obviously recognising her from before. The calm she had on her face never left her, as she just raised a brow and nodded.
"Again, a clever gambit by your employer. You should have been more aware of your surroundings, seeing as you had someone locked up. This usually means there is someone on the outside that is looking for such a person." She started to walk past to the gun cupboard. "Seeing as this test is now over, can I have my weapons back? I relinquished them in good faith for this experiment to give you a fair, if not biased chance." She was indeed an impressive specimen. No human would have had the confidence and conviction she had to talk her way out of a situation.
The laughable thing was it actually worked.
"Oh my mistake Ma'am. I knew there had to be a good reason." The first guard said as he nodded to his friends. One of them pulled out a key and unlocked the weapon's storage. He promptly stepped aside as she went for her oversized riffle. Her temporary new arm was a little weaker, and strained under the weight of such a weapon, but luckily with the plans she managed to download, she could just rebuild herself.
"Thank-you sergeant, we will note your co-operation in our report." She stated. They all tried to move to the door. Fate seemed to spit in their face once again as the back door, the one leading to the manager's office, had swiftly opened to reveal a rather angry looking man, wielding a...gold revolver.
"A gold revolver? How cliché can you get?" Gar asked, shrugging in a way only he could pull off. It was true, a gold weapon was just finished off the whole spy spin off this chapter had been.
I was raised on James Bond and other spy things... sue me.
"Maybe that's the idea?" His partner in crime stated, gearing up the Sonic Cannon that he was so very, very proud of. In his other hand he pulled out a dossier that Noel had put together about employees and scientists, and this man was a guy called Mr Phelps, a managing director of Wayne Tech. He was the kind of man who would get things done, ignoring the cost to other people. In a way he was part of this new breed of managers, who, despite having little knowledge of him, seemed to be a watered down version of Maxwell Collins, Noel's oh so esteemed father. But you must understand that he is a very cold-hearted individual, and these people are usually cowards, hiding from the atrocities that they commit.Much like this man. He was going to start a war. Not just a little battle, like the ones the Teen Titans USUALLY engage in, but a whole war to get something into production. He wasn't going to actually take part in the brutality of it all, he was just going to step back and let his 'Money making toys' do all the dirty work, he didn't care for the soldiers that would die at the hands of a reprogrammed Viridian. They were just statistics.
Numbers.
"Well. I suppose not all the Titans have their minds working in the same direction after all." He stated, shrugging lightly.
"Can it! We're takin' Viridian back and there is nothing you can do about it!" Cyborg shouted, getting ready to dive left or right depending on where the shots where fired. The manager laughed.
"You kids are supposed to be the MTV generation. Doesn't every villain you see on the TV ALWAYS has a way to 'do something about it'." He laughed a little, before raising his gun and firing at Viridian, one shot, right between the eyes. Like most managers and directors of large firms, he needed something to fill his time with other than work. While most take up golf or fishing, Mr Phelps took up accuracy sports, rifle shooting, archery and target practice. His shot was more accurate than most people in the military and his plan was that if they can't stop the Titans, then he will stop Viridian and rebuild her for his plan.
Ironically, Viridian was suposedly his creation, but he didn't have a clue about her reaction time, because not only did she catch the bullet, but she caught it with that still uniform look on her face, the look that could freeze an ocean, it was so cold. There was no emotion, none. It was like looking into a blank canvas. It just went to prove that not only did he take the credit for someone else's work, but he didn't even bother to read the fine print. Not as if he could really understand it though, he was the kind of person to wait for a man to actually make a wonderful discovery and when they went out to lunch he would steal it, polish it and present it as his own.
"You really have no idea, do you." The android stated as she dropped the bullet to the ground and crushed it underfoot; leaving what looked like a glittering powder. Fear now filled the face of Phelps as he panicked and ran for his life, back over to his iron clad elevator, trying not to look back at the menace that slowly walked towards him.
"Don't just STAND THERE! FIRE! FIRE!" He shouted to his sorely confused security officers. Beast Boy turned to them and changed into a large reptile, better known as the Komodo Dragon, the largest lizard on the planet (that was still around at any rate. And wasn't some kind of mutation or alien. Or...you get the idea) and spun on the spot, catching the nearest guard in the legs with his whip like tail, ripping the fabric but not the skin. The attack was meant to sting like hell and make him back off rather than to do him an actual injury. In this form it was unexpectedly easy, as a normal Komodo Dragon can whip his way through a Gortex boot, some of the toughest boots of the market. He hopped out of the action in a most literal way, but the others just drew their weapons to try and tackle him. For the first time that day, luck seemed to be with the Titans as the injured man hopped into his fellow guards, making all shots go astray.
So hard to find good henchmen these days.
"Come on Viridian! We gotta get out of here!" Cyborg hollered to the android, who turned towards him and paused, before looking back at Phelps. He had, by this time, gotten into his left. She dashed forward at incredible speed, but it wasn't enough as the doors closed right in front of her. Cursing under her simulated breath, she pressed a button on her wrist before she turned back to the guards
"This room is going to explode in less than 10 minutes. You security guards better run if you would like to get a pension." She told them, still in that relentlessly calm and monotone voice. If someone said they were going to the shops it would sound worse than what she just said. It was almost annoying, but strangely comforting at what looked like confidence on her part. .
"SAY WHAT?!" The Titans yelled, before she grabbed a hold of them and yanked them towards a window.
"I placed explosives on the consoles to make sure I am not copied for their plans."
The boys ripped themselves from her surprisingly strong grip and stared at her incredulously.
"Wait, you still haven't told us what their plans are! And mind the do!" The green hero shouted as he re-did his hair.
"Fine." She paused. "Wayne Tech's profits have been plummeting steadily for the past few years, but peeked at the prospect of another war. But Phelps knew that people don't want to fight any more, and so he stole my late Father's work and I before I was refined."
"Which he got someone else to do." Cyborg stated, thinking it over with his left hand firmly on his chin and his other free hand resting on his left forearm.
"Yes, a Mister Fowler. He is a tall, scraggly looking gentleman who is quite brilliant, I assure you. However, he is easily misled, and weak when it comes to pressure from higher up."
Figured. The Titans was fed up with dealing with misinformed individuals. They still hadn't found Joe Ashton, AKA Myth. It was quite sad to see good-hearted people go bad because a manipulative third party gets involved to twist their views with words and blackmail.
"So what happened to your father?" the changeling asked, his voice going a little softer.
"We met with an 'unfortunate accident', or in plain English, he was murdered." Viridian replied, leaving a sombre face on the young man. "We have three minutes, twenty two seconds left."
"What is their plan?" Cyborg quickly cut in, not wanting to go fly-by when the explosives went off.
"To mass-produce me, then to sell my 'children' off to the government for large sums of money. Then when things get too dull, I will be sent into battle to cause a panic, then the small army which was bought will come after their 'mother' and kill me, all in the name of profit." She paused. "It is what you humans would call disconcerting to think that I am a tool and more tools based on me will be around." She paused again and looked down at her hands. Her delicate fingers on one side and her crude digits on the other, quite the contrast really. 'My father wanted me to be a pianist, an artist, a doctor or a seamstress. Something, anything that used its hands in the most delicate of work, but never a weapon.' She thought to herself as she her hands balled into fists. 'I used to have emotions and memories, but as soon as Phelps stole me, it was all taken away.'
She was brought out of her thoughts for a moment or two as her wrist bleeped. Looking down she saw a panel slide back and a floor plan revealed itself with a blip every so often.
"What is it?" Her rescuers asked, looking at her in a mild curiosity.
"I seem to have located a missing part." She wandered over to a painting on the wall, paused then carried on going.
"If a safe is behind the painting, I'm going to shout Cliché and I don't care how many people hear me." Beast Boy told Cyborg as they followed her over. He glanced back quickly to where the guards were, or had been. They may have been blunderers, but they were not stupid, as they too have fled the scene of the crime, not wanting to go up with the building.
Viridian came to a seam in the panels on the wall. Reaching up, she ran her middle finger down it, looking for something, before the panel popped open and slid out. Coincidently, it was the panel next to the painting.
"Well, it's discreet, which is a good thing." Cyborg consoled his friend before looking over. Well, so far so good, as she examined what had emerged. It looked like a solid metal box jutting out of the wall with a small keypad on it. Her hand reached up and keyed in a pass code, her fingers working much faster than most humans could follow, trying to crack the code. Beast Boy's brain, perhaps still bearing a trace of Mad Mod's warping process, soon zoned out trying to keep up with the android's five magic fingers as they danced their way through the proverbial second act of an orchestral performance or some other random metaphor like that. Cyborg resorted to prodding him with a piece of random piping to keep him from passing out completely until the tapping stopped and a click occurred. The metal covering slid back into the wall revealing two shelves. The top one had what looked like the weekly budget, or at least the 'off the record bonus pay' the department was stealing from the company. On the bottom row it had what looked like microchips, each with a label. Flicking through them as casually as a person would do to find a CD in a store rack, Viridian searched for the ones she wanted. After a moment or two she came across them; the back up plans for the Viridian model android and two Memory sticks, one labelled 'Viridian's Mind' and the other 'Viridian's Soul', or in other words Memory and Emotions.
Her eyes almost went wide as she took the two cartridges and held them in her hand for a moment or two.
"Viridian, bomb, time to go!" Cyborg shouted. She nodded as he grabbed the still zoomed Beast Boy and they dashed for a window. They didn't notice, however, that the safe had already retracted and a few extra layers of armour plating had subtly snapped down around it
Just as they came to the window and their escape plan, the emergency shutters went down.
"Oh shit."
Upstairs, about 4 stories up and two chapters across (Joking, joking) smirked Mr Phelps, his yellow crooked teeth clenched hard together as he drooled over the prospect of killing two meddlesome kids and a terrorist who planted explosives in his lab. This would be perfect, because while they might be taking the plans, they would be destroying all the evidence, including themselves. He was just an innocent victim of circumstance, a person who was able to do the heroic thing and trap the terrorists in his lab, not realizing there was a bomb there. The papers will read 'Manager of WayneTech: Hero of the day'. And afterwards, he'd get a team of his best scientists to pluck the carcass of the android dry, along side the other two cadavers to see what they could get out of them for 'defence purposes' and they would build a better android, a far stronger one, and be able to sell it to the government, which would ironically be because of this 'robotic fanatic', because if managed to break in and plant a bomb without security knowing, do you really want YOUR security at risk?
Of course he'd have to pay off the guards, but that's fine, as the safe and the money was still intact and they would settle for much less than what other bosses would pay them to shut up.
"This is too good to be true!" He gloated out loud at the monitor, getting blobs of spit on the screen. "Serves you right for trying to mess with the greatest boss the world will ever see!"
"I highly doubt that." A voice came from behind him; it was a deep yet calm voice. Phelps turned around with his gun raised and pointing at his foe, anger in his eyes.
The only thing he got back was a pair of white slits on a black cowl, looking straight back at him, and not looking too impressed. The man moved out of the shadows and batted the gun away, making it fall to the floor.
"B...B..." Phelps stuttered, not sure what to do.
"You are going to release the lock on the windows aren't you?" The taller man asked as he continued to walk forwards, a dark cape moulding itself around his muscular shoulders and draping to the floor, the jagged edge brushing the soft carpet ever so often.
"H...Hey you don't scare me!" He pressed a button and four large men in what looked like swat vests piled into the room. The black caped man just narrowed his eyes. Each man charged at him and as quickly as they had entered the room, they were on the floor in a crumpled heap, groaning at the pain in their arms and legs, having now been removed from their sockets. "Well okay maybe you do b-but that's natural." Phelps backed up towards his console on his desk. He stopped when he felt the warm wood against his back. "Can't w-we make a deal? No?"
"RELEASE. THE LOCKS."
"YAHOOO!" This was the one thing, amongst all others, that Cyborg decided to shout as he, while carrying the comatose Beast Boy and in the company of the ever stoic Viridian, jumped through a window, with flames following him. Although the explosion wasn't exactly an eruption of fire, it was still strong enough to dislodge any broken glass and to send a few odds and ends flying. Being in mid air, they were one of the things that went flying.
Cyborg managed to right himself in the air and landed on the ground with a large, metallic thud. Viridian also managed to right herself, but her small feet no longer possessed any sole to them from all her high speed running, and so she couldn't land straight and fell over. Her crude hand popped open and out flew her one of the sticks. Her emotions.
You could almost feel her eyes widening as it bounced on the concrete once, twice, over a gutter and then in the middle of the street. Cyborg breathed a sigh of relief as she went to grab it.
A car zoomed past and their eyes went wide again.
It missed it; it was in the middle of the road and the car passed harmlessly over it. She reached out again.
Motorbike. This one didn't miss.
The information flew into thousands of small shards, each part of the microchip flying into the air, its gold and silver components shining out against the streetlights. Viridian paused and stood up again. She didn't turn for a moment or two, she just waited.
"I suppose this is what you would call a cruel twist of fate?" She turned towards Cyborg.
"It is. So what are you going to do now?"
She pondered for a moment or two, then looked north, up the street in the same direction as the motorbike went.
"I have a cousin of sorts. Her creator and mine were good friends, so much so they swore an oath supposedly. I suppose I could go there." She shook her head lightly, her wire hair fluttering in the light evening breeze. "It's almost as if the biker was directing me."
"Is there anything I can do for you?" He raised his hand up, as if to emphasise his point.
"You have done more than enough... but..." She removed the rifle from her back and looked at it one last time before handing it into his open palm. "I am not a weapon. I'm a person. Viridian Bliss Thompson. That sounds like a nice name. "She started to walk forwards.
"How will we find you?" He shouted after her.
"I'll let you know." She said, and waved goodbye. Looking down at the one chip left in her hand, she started to run. "At least I have my Memory."
Cyborg waved back and watched her run. He sighed one last time, before building up a belch large enough to snap his green friend out of his hypnotic trance. Not exactly the most dignified way to end the day, but it worked. Then again it wasn't quite done as a high-tech black car pulled up next to them, the roof canopy lifting back.
"Get in."
"I CAN NOT believe it! I just simply do not understand it!"
When the two had arrived back at the tower however, it wasn't exactly the heroes welcome they wanted. After all, they just stopped a war from happening, but Robin, once again, wasn't happy. After all, his entire team had just conspired together and undid what he had just done. And it wasn't just Cyborg either, but the whole team. Raven and Noel helped plan it, Cyborg and Beast Boy did the deed and Terra told Beast Boy about the couple's plans. All of his team were in front of him in a line, and he walked up and down it like a general addressing his troops.
"Well it did happen." Terra said, looking off to one side.
"Yeah well, what about the trust you neglected to show us?" Cyborg asked, looking straight down into the eyes of Robin.
"What?" Robin paused.
"How about the time where you dressed up as Red X?" Raven asked, keeping her usual cool, though she could feel her anger. "You didn't trust us enough to tell us that you had committed those crimes in order to get to Slade."
"I had to, otherwise you would have not fought at 100%." He sighed and rubbed his temples. "Look." He started to talk again in a softer, lighter tone. Removing his mask he started again. "I have only ever wanted what is best for the team, you know that. These past few weeks were... hectic." He walked back down the line. "Things have been happening as of late that I don't expect anyone to understand."
"We know Fearless."
"But it still gives you NO RIGHT to do what you did! We gave the android back to Wayne Enterprises! What the hell did you think you where doing breaking in there?!"
"We had to get her out! You read the report!" Cyborg shouted at his leader.
"Yes but Gotham isn't our jurisdiction! That is Batman's territory and remember he has been in the super hero business a lot longer than we have!" He shouted, stepping up on tiptoes to look a little closer into the Cyborg's eye. "This conversation is over, I'm right, you're wrong. You're lucky I'm nice enough to keep you on my team." He lowered himself, put on his mask and strolled confidently out of the room.
"HIS team?!" Gauntlet shouted. He hadn't really been a part of it, but he was being shouted at for all the times he has done something like this and not told them so it kind of evened out. Secretly he wanted to be a part of it just so he could call himself Q or something.
"His way of thinking is starting to hurt my head." Raven complained, rubbing her temples lightly to try and get rid of the headache that had been caused by their leader.
"You know why this is don't you? He's still pissed at us for accepting Nigel." Gauntlet sighed and led down upon their unique sofa.
"Don't say it too loudly or he'll come in and shove his staff down your throat." Terra commented, stretching lightly. She still hadn't seen what this Nigel looked like, but then again Robin has wiped him from all the computers except the one in the lab.
"Well now that he's gone we have to take all the force of Robin's rage." Beast Boy said, flopping backwards over the back of the chair with the remote in hand.
Noel, who had calmly stood there and listened to their leader's mad ranting for the good part of five minutes, decided he was going to go check the mail. Sifting through to see if there was anything for Raven or himself. Junk, junk, you have won a thousand dollars; to claim send six hundred dollars, junk, junk, AOL CD (new drinks coaster), junk and a white letter. He paused on the white letter and threw the AOL disk at Gauntlet, just for laughs. Rob caught it and placed his cola on top of it.
He walked back to the group, the white letter in hand and opened it. It was on the marked stationary of the local hospital. Inside, on hospital-watermarked paper, was a letter and a lot of different pieces of paper.
"Is that the test results you requested?" Raven asked. He just nodded and carried on reading.
"What test results?" Beast Boy asked.
"Something I suspected but I hope isn't true..." Noel said as he kept reading. Soon he came across a part of it that didn't so much surprise him, but made him feel a little low inside. It was grim news, but he still had to tell them.
Later that evening Robin was in his room, examining some evidence of a local crime that had been committed. It seemed to be the handy work of a small group of thugs whose leader seemed to be a normal man with a custom gun, and Robin was examining one of the rounds that were left. The door slid open slowly and Noel stood there, looking in at him as he calmly worked.
"Tim, we need to talk." Noel said lightly, making his way into the dim lit room. Avoiding all the obstacles here was almost like an initiation test. If you could get from one side to the other you win the prize of Robin's attention.
"Start talking." He said, not looking up from the cartridge he had found.
"I'd like to talk to you about the way you've been acting as of late." Noel made his way into the depths of Robin's "office".
"Ahuh."
"I think that you have been a little... harsh on some of the Titans as of late." He finally managed to reach the young leader and leaned on the desk. Robin still didn't look up. "What I'm trying to say is that you have been, admittedly, under a great deal of stress. That's understandable. However, is taking it out on the others a good way to handle such anxiety?"
Silence.
"Look...maybe in some way or another you feel that you hurt, and you want the others to know that you are hurting inside, yet you wish to keep your integrity and so, rather than blubbering you have started to shout, which at some degree is acceptable but it still is a little agitating when you keep taking it out on us." Noel continued.
Silence.
"What I am trying to say is that you are shouting at us for doing something that you might have done once. After all we have all done things that weren't by the book. Hell, that's how Gauntlet got here. But you must understand that shouting at these people like this may cause more damage in the long run, so please try and calm down." "Ahuh."
"You aren't even listening to me, are you? You are ignoring every word I say!"
"That is about the size of it."
"Damn it Tim, we all know that you are hurting! For you AND Starfire! But that's no damn reason to take it out on us!" Noel yelled at his leader, who turned and glared at the leader of the newer Titans.
"And what happens if I don't shout? You go off and do more stupid things and then more people get hurt, and then they feel pain!"
".................Is that it?" Noel said darkly. "You're ignoring me not because you hurt. Instead, you're ignoring me because I'm a newer member of the team." The white Titan said, lifting his finger and pointing at his leader. "You're better then this Tim. You should be reaching out to us, and instead, you're looking for people to blame!"
"Well wouldn't you? If you hadn't noticed, a monster came through here a couple of months back and started to rip this place apart, and he eventually caused the death of an innocent!"
"Nigel isn't the monster you-"
Robin shook his head at Noel's unfinished sentence.
"It was SO much simpler when it was just the five of us. No one got too badly hurt, but no. More and more people came to try and join our little group, and now that has cost us dearly. Now I am a Titan down and seriously considering getting rid of the newer Titans in case they too make a stupid mistake." Robin barked at him. "Would you like that?"
Noel's fists balled and his arms tensed.
"You dare blame Nigel for your own faults. You know, some things aren't always what they seem..."
"Bring his name up one more time and I'll hand you your ass!" Robin yelled as he pointed at him. "From this moment Noel, you have lost all seniority on this team..." Robin started, but this time it was Noel's turn to ignore him, as he continued on his sentence.
"Why do you think your son died?" He continued, looking dead into the eyes of his leader.
"Noel, you have five seconds to get out of here with you still looking pretty." Robin threatened, getting in Noel's face.
"It wasn't Nigel's fault you know."
Robin snapped, shoving Noel away in a set up to his real offensive move, as he jumped up to try and land a spin kick at Noel's jaw. However, unlike their infamous first training session Noel decided to play his trump card, the Shimmer.
Shimmer strands lanced out, wrapping around Tim and slamming him against the wall, pulling off his utility belt even as more strands pulled Noel forward so he could shove the papers he was holding in Tim's face.
"The genetic codes didn't match."
"LET ME GO! I ORDER YOU-!!!!!!!!!" Tim roared at Noel, before Shimmer strands grabbed his heads and forced it to look at the paper.
"THE. GENETIC CODES. DIDN'T. MATCH." Noel stated again, his tone harsh. Tim looked at all the nonsense printed on the front page, which was actually the last page: Noel had flipped it forward.
And it had a discovery that shook Tim to his very core.
"What...?"
"I asked the doctors to run some extra tests, since you were so certain that the death of your son's fault lay with Nigel and Nigel alone. But you're wrong Tim. Nigel didn't murder your son. YOU did. BECAUSE YOU HAD SEX WITH AN ALIEN WITHOUT KNOWING IF YOUR SPECIES COULD PROPERLY INTERBREED! They couldn't! Starfire's body REJECTED the baby!! HER DNA COULDN'T PROPERLY MATCH UP WITH YOURS! It would have died even WITHOUT Nigel EVER EXISTING!"
"No! That monster attacked her! If he hadn't we could have caught it, stopped..."
"Tim, your baby was destined to die as soon as it was created. It was not meant to exist. The fact that it made it so far was a miracle. But it was going to die Tim. Nigel just possibly hastened the process. More fault lies with the White Hole that forced that move, or Starfire for not leaving the island, or you for not changing any particular move you made in that battle, then it does with Nigel. THIS WAS INEVITABLE. YOU CANNOT HAVE CHILDREN WITH KORY."
"But!"
"EVER."
"No...no...you're lying! Since you...!" Tim screamed, before a Shimmer strand slapped him across the face. At this point, Noel let him go, throwing the papers in front of him.
"It's worse then I thought. I knew that losing your baby was going to hurt you Tim, but I hoped that you could work through it, that you understood the importance of working through it. But you haven't. It's blinding you to reason and rhyme, so to speak. All you can do is rage, blame, and hurt. And you're allowed to Tim. But not while you're leading a group of superheroes. Tim, you have to step down."
"NO! I WON'T!"
"Tim, please, I know of your great capacity for rational thinking. I know that such things are easily swept away by emotion. Please, for your own sake, try and find it again and see that this is true!"
"SHUT UP! YOU'RE JUST LIKE NIGEL! A FOOL, A..."
"Freak? Monster? Dear god Tim, listen to yourself. We're all human...but you've become too human."
"Better human then what Nigel was!"
"And Starfire as well?"
Robin was silent.
"I'm sorry Tim. I hoped it wouldn't come to this. But after all I've seen, I have no choice. We're stripping you of command."
"WHAT! YOU CAN'T! I'M THE LEADER! ME!"
"Yes, and you should know that the Titans have an emergency veto ability. When I got this data, I brought it before them. I didn't want to, but I knew it had gone this far. And so had they. They all voted for it. You need to leave Tim. You need to work this out. If you don't, it's not our mistakes that are going to get someone else killed. It will be YOU. And I won't allow that. When you're better, you'll be welcomed back. Until then, get out."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then we'll MAKE you leave." Noel said quietly.
"TRAITORS! I'M YOUR LEADER! I...I..." Robin faltered as the full realization was kicking in: the Titans had kicked him off.
"Go home Tim. Or go to Batman. Or go form another team. Do what you wish. I think you'll heal Tim. But the only one who knows for certain is you. Don't let us down, or Starfire, or the world. You're better then that. Don't let your flaws drag you down to the level of the scum we fight. There are two kinds of men in this world Tim. The righteous who think they are sinners, and the sinners who think they are righteous. You need to decide which. Now get out."
And with that Noel left Tim, crumbled to the floor, alone in the darkness of his own making.
The door shut behind the white Titan as he walked down the corridor.
"What now?" the soft voice of Raven came behind him. Noel paused and looked up at the ceiling.
"I say we find Nigel."
Jedi: Phew, done. That was a kinda serious chapter but don't worry! The next one will be lighter hearted! See you in the next chapter!