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 19: Our God, Our Rules!
Gluttony, Sloth, Vanity, Lust, Greed, Envy and Wrath.
To most people these things mean one thing…the deaths in a movie entitled Seven. Gee, wasn't that ending shocking when Brad Pitt…er, anyway…
To the followers of the Christian, Catholic, Protestant and all Jesus based religions, it was said in their written works that you must try not to (or for some, you MUST not) do wrong, and the seven deadly sins were said to be the worst failings you could succumb to. But of course, these things weren't like the 10 Commandments, which were preset statements, but more like states of mind, things that are harder to control, and thus harder to understand.
It's no wonder that some people become obsessed with them. People who fixate about how beautiful they are, or how much money they make or how much someone else is making, because that is part of who we are.
But then again...
"Seven deadly sins indeed." Savior cursed as he dove out of the way of another monster leg bearing down upon him. He managed to gain enough momentum to swing out of the way just as the leg smashed through a car, almost as if the car was made out of tissue paper (It was a convertible, but it doesn't mean that the metallic sides should fold like a toy). Said dodge had come because Savior had swung in to strike and lash at the creature, to no apparent detrimental effect whatsoever. And it wasn't just him: each Titan that came up against the creature was soon dismissed with as much effort as a horse might exert to get rid of some flies.
Scalpel came in slashing, but was batted away using the broad side of Vanity's left insect leg, sending him crashing into a shop window, ruining some of this year's hottest new wedding dresses.
Most villains at this point in time would probably say something, something really corny like 'How vain!' or 'You need to work on your make-up', but not this one. She wasn't gloating, she wasn't taunting or monologuing, she was just fighting. Her eyes didn't seem interested in anything but whatever pain swirled inside her head, but her body fought with the instincts to survive. It was creepy, the way her smaller, more human body counterpart seemed to shake sometimes, each time trying to reassess what was around her.
"Any thoughts boss?" Cyborg asked, blasting away at the creature with quick, sharp blasts from his sonic cannon. There was a pause. Too much of one, while they waited for an answer, and before one came Gauntlet was knocked back into the Café that Noel oh so enjoyed.
"Argh! Keep blasting! We need to find some sort of weak spot!" He yelled, throwing a Shimmer strand upwards and catching hold of a building ledge. Vanity didn't know what he was planning, but she caught on before long as he shot up to try and get on her back. She wasn't having any of it as with one of her spare 'hands' she grabbed hold of the strands, yanked them from their brace on the building, and swung Savior down onto the ground with a heavy thud. He groaned, and then he furiously rolled out of the way of one of her huge feet.
Beast Boy shot forwards, randomly sifting through his powers until he found one that seemed to be of some use. The elephant. Even though the woolly mammoth was a bigger creature, the elephant wasn't such a large target, so he could get away with more. Or at least that was the idea. He used the space in between his tusks to push one of the appendages of the creature away, but this only seemed to aggravate it as one of its large hands enveloped the Titan and threw him aside just as easily as if he was a human.
Raven was the next batter up, lifting cars off the street that she propelled at her foe, floating in midair as she attacked. She had seen creatures like this, worse than this, but they were generally in fiction. She thought back to all the times she asked the boys to stop shouting because they had completed Resident Evil faster than the other one, and how the final bosses were always a bit of a bitch to deal with. She laughed to herself, how in those kinds of games those last foes were always some hideous monster, through and through.
But this wasn't. It was a teenager. She was probably only a few years Raven's senior, grafted to this frame, this other entity to control it. But by who? And why? And how did they handle it?
Thoughts raced through her mind to try and figure out what had happened, and one scenario was that the creature was created but could not sustain itself, and so they used this teenager to almost power it, to be a part of it, against her will. If that was the case, she couldn't let this creature remain like this, so she fired what she could to try and help dislodge the teen, making sure her force wasn't enough to seriously harm her. But all this succeeded in doing was drawing the attention away from the males and onto her. The bloodshot eye circled up towards the Goth lovely, and then the macabre creature started making its way forward, slowly but surely.
Who would have thought that, even while in this form, the young teen only thought about her beauty? Or maybe that was just a trick impression her face was giving Raven, as said face, with drying blood flowing down from the eye and cracking off, went through various expressions, or rather a cycle of the more excruciating ones. Pain, anger, fear, paranoia, depression, exhaustion, all the looks that parents don't like to see on their children, expressions we spend thousands of Pounds, Dollars, Euros and other currencies on a year to avoid by activities, holidays and other escapes.
Raven backed up, continuing her barrage of vehicles in the hopes that it might slow the somewhat sluggish creature down. And that seemed to be working…until she was backed up to the end of the street, and found she had run out of cars without people in them, and being at a four-way junction, she was surrounded by pedestrians and motorists to boot. Forced to find new 'ammo, she reached out with her hand as she focussed all her power upon one of the large lights that directed traffic across the intersection and started to pull it from the ground. However, her powers, maybe because of the constant exhaustion from Robin running them ragged a few days before, didn't seem to want to work at full capacity, and she found herself struggling with ripping the traffic lights from the concrete floor. Unable to draw this option quickly, she once again scanned the area for secondary targets to rip up, but alas, none were in direct sight.
She really should have been paying better attention to her target, the 'slow' monster.
A hand descended upon her, and before Raven could react it wrapped her up, almost cradling her like a child, but with a grip strong enough to make sure she stayed put. Raven was brought closer towards the controlling creature, and even as she was about to make some noise to indicate she didn't much appreciate this she saw that the gag that the Titans thought they had seen was actually something else. It was a Bit, a long thin pole that was either used for riding horses or to put in a person's mouth to endure pain.
"So..." It spoke, a soft tone as it reached forward, not with the giant hand but a human one. She slipped it out of her new body structure and reached towards Raven, her arm and hand covered in congealed blood and what could only be described as veins the size of the average garden hose, the tubes weaving its way in and out of the skin, wrapping around the arm and up to the back of her hand. She smiled softly and placed her hand on the Titan's cheek.
"You are so… beautiful." She laughed, brushing some of the hair out of Raven's eyes. Raven was speechless. Vanity's mind wasn't focused on fighting at all; she was conducting herself in a manner that would best befit someone who wanted to have a casual talk. The fingers of the creature played with her hair a little, and then it dragged its middle finger down the gem that was imbedded onto Raven's forehead. "Simply stunning..."
Raven was quite worried. She didn't know how to react; she didn't know what to do or what to say. It wasn't like when someone was taunting her, to that she could react, but this creature had her prisoner, yet it spent all it's time admiring her. She had no witty comeback or clever solution to what was happening, just a blank look of surprise while everyone who saw this would have had some degree of fear because of the mental instability of the creature. A wishful look came upon the eyes of Vanity while the creature stared at her, then she laughed lightly.
"I must look a mess." It said lightly, trying to get some congealed blood out of her hair. Raven hadn't noticed before, but the battle was carrying on, furiously so, but the head didn't seem to notice. Her arm shook violently, trying as much as she could to remove the blood but failing. Raven's face was the picture of confusion and semi-shock. All she could do was shake her head slowly from side to side. Her mind was screaming at her to do something, but of course her body was shouting back 'Shut up logic and reasoning, I'm being ADMIRED by a MOINSTER here!'
Even for Raven, this wasn't an everyday occurrence. Not an hour ago, her long-term boyfriend, Noel, had been the one stroking her hair. This was, as a certain comedy group might say, something completely different, and not something she liked.
"GET AWAY FROM HER!!"
Raven's head shifted over to the voice that barked that particular order. Noel was here, and boy was he pissed that such a creature had grabbed his girlfriend. He didn't know what Vanity was doing, and Raven didn't know what to think anymore, but the shouting had brought her around and she started to think about ways of getting out of the vice grip she was in. She knew she had to get out of here before Noel did something rash. The head of Vanity looked over at Savior.
"No." She said calmly.
"No?" Savior replied, looking genuinely surprised. "Ok, fine! SCALPEL! GUT HER!" He snarled, turning towards the alien, whose own strength wasn't in top form. He nodded solemnly, trying to think of a way to do as he was told. His Glaive, though excessively sharp by nature, sharp enough to cut through titanium actually, hadn't been sharpened in a long time. It had become dull and was, as such, no use against the creature, so he had to find a new weapon. Folding it away, he looked around for something, anything. Then his eyes caught sight of a half ripped up traffic light and he decided to finish off the job. Along with the help of Cyborg, he dug his talons deep into the metal shaft that supported the light and lifted, completing the task that Raven couldn't. As Savior swung and back away from Vanity to distract her, Scalpel swung with his own weapon, slicing it like a scythe, taking out her middle insect like limb.
Normally, this wouldn't have mattered much as Vanity was made like a spider, or a bug, meaning that she could have some limbs off the floor and it wouldn't matter as others would balance her out, but at the time she only had her insect limb on the floor, the rear legs on the left side was up to move her and the hand was holding Raven. It may not have cut her or anything, but the fact her leg was suddenly taken out was enough as she was forced to let go of Raven to try and balance herself.
Her frame reacted immediately though, kicking Scalpel through a shop window. When it realized it no longer had hold of Raven, the head almost looked pained, and then it turned on Scalpel as he came out of the shop window, grabbing him with the hand she had held Raven in and throwing him far and high into the air. As he flew, he couldn't help but curse at the fact he couldn't fly and landed a few buildings away, hitting a rooftop and rolling and skidding a little, eventually coming to a stop.
Sophie, who was a building away, made her way over to where the alien had landed: focusing immensely, she managed to get her powers to work when she wanted them to, not when THEY wanted to, and got across to help the alien, who at this moment was sitting on the roof trying to recall what day it was, let alone what he was doing or who he was facing. Sophie grabbed his hat and brought it back over and dropped it on his head playfully.
Nigel shook off the cobwebs a little and smiled, though obviously in pain. He had been thrown quite hard after all.
"Just keep it up out there, okay?" Sophie asked, stuttering a little, before helping him up. "I know you can find some form of weakness." She added, though she felt stupid, almost like a cheerleader. But at least she was helping in some way.
"Yes, but what?" He asked her, turning to leave off the ledge he had landed on.
Well that had been the plan.
Two oversized hands clasped onto the side of the building, damaged appendages with skin hanging off. The edge crumbled under the weight and sheer size of the limbs. The pair backed up, freaking a little as the frame and head of Vanity came up to look at them.
"You made me rip out some hair!" The head bellowed, strands of dyed golden tresses in between her fingertips. The alien held his arm out, almost as if he was protecting the civilian bystander, which he was. Sophie couldn't move, and even if she weren't in a state of pure fear, she wouldn't have anywhere to run anyway.
There was a pause, and then the abomination looked at the rounder face of the young caretaker of the dead. Her expression softened looking at the panic stricken girl, before her eyes caught the man once again. That seemed to remind the monster of its intent, as the creature's and the smaller torso's hands reached out to try and grab them.
The eighth deadly sin probably would have been Hesitation, for her procrastination had cost the monster as white lines shot up around the giant hand that reached out towards the pair. While the Shimmer slowed and even started to shift the large hand backwards, the smaller human hand continued to reach forward. Something in Scalpel's mind was going off, there was something about the composition of the image in front of him, something off, something he couldn't put his finger on, until he realised the hand wasn't going for him but going PAST him, avoiding his rugged alien features and headed towards the rounder, sweeter features of Miss Mathews behind him. Nigel's head jerked to the side as he watched the arm go past his shoulder trying to grab at something at Sophie, trying to grab at her face.
"PULL!" A shout from the street yelled, and then the creature was finally catapulted back, but not before taking the mask that Sophie was wearing with her. She had gotten close enough to pry off the super hero mask, once again reverting Sophie's eyes from the empty white that they had been altered to, to the soft and large hazel eyes they usually were. The shock of the fact that something like that had actually managed to touch her made Sophie fall backwards onto the hard rooftop.
On the street, Noel had launched out his Shimmer strands at the creature, grabbing her at several points, however the grip the monster had was just too much for even the Shimmer's power, so he had enlisted the other Titans, and they managed to pull the creature off almost like a tug of war. Vanity landed on her back, HARD, making cars jump up somewhat as the entire street felt like it was shaking. Then there was a gap before the rumbling started again, but not because of anything Vanity was doing, as the edges of the street coiled up and formed a makeshift cocoon around the monster. Terra laughed to herself while she descended on her rock.
"Maybe when she gets out she'll look better." She landed next to Savior, who was trying to call his Shimmer back into his body. "You okay boss?"
"Yeah, just give me a moment."
"Any ideas?" Gauntlet asked, rubbing his jaw somewhat.
"My sonic blasts don't even dent it, while BB can't change into anything strong enough to keep it down, or even knock it down." Cyborg said. Scalpel had jumped down by this time, telling Sophie to hide somewhere out of sight until they got her mask back. He stumbled on the last few steps but regained his balance and approached the team. "And Scalpel is physically screwed. Seriously man, you need a week's getaway."
"A weeks what?" He pondered, raising one of his brows.
"I see what you mean, nothing we do seems to even bother this thing." Savior paused a little, trying to put that mind of his to good use. It was strange: of this group, one person had their mind enhanced by machines, another became a doctor at the age of fourteen, one was a bright young man whose mind could remember so much more because of his ability to control nerves, one was a globe trotting young woman, one was a sorceress and the last male, although he didn't have any real enhancements, had been around the globe a little, yet none of them could think of anything.
"She seemed... distracted when she picked me up." Raven said quietly. She felt quite disturbed at that fact that such a creature had groomed her. Usually she wouldn't have let it get to her and would have shrugged it off, but since Noel had battled and bested her father and essentially released her from her emotional prison, she was able to express herself more easily. But this also worked the other way as well however, meaning even if she didn't want them to come to the surface, some emotions would arise. It was becoming harder to control, and sometimes her powers too would have spurts of irregularity, however she just put this down to the constant workload over the past few days.
"Yes, I noticed that the creature was reaching past me and aiming for our 'Guest'." Scalpel said, referring to Sophie. He didn't say her name because if he did, they didn't really need to give her a mask. Savior once again put his thinking cap on, but this time bettering better results.
"Terra, when that thing frees itself, fly in front of it, Scalpel, Beast Boy, when you get the chance, take its leg off! Everyone aim for the same leg!"
Said blonde gulped: she didn't like playing bait for such a creature. I suppose this also demonstrated how green Noel was when it came to command. Most leaders would try and avoid putting anyone in the line of fire, and would have tried to think of another way which didn't require anyone to possibly sacrifice themselves, but Noel just thought he needed to do what needed to be done, any way possible, because there was still people around them, gathering around to see what they were facing this time. Idiots. "This isn't a good place to be, but we have no other choice. When that thing gets up, knock it back down!"
"Sir, Yes sir!" The Titans shouted, though some not in the most serious tone, as together they dashed forward, watching as the many legs on Vanity started to rip apart the concrete cage that had been constructed around her. Moments seemed to pass, and then her head was once again seen, her hair covered in dust and grime as small specs of rubble seemed to stick to her face.
"You... you ruined my makeup..." She said softly, getting her human hand to try and touch up and clean off what she could, her hand shaking violently as dirty tears started to roll down her cheek, not the normal colour of tears but tears that looked like they had come from some sort of rusty old septic tank, a disgusting shade of see-through brown, as her bloodshot eyes tried to lock onto the Titans. Her body shifted and made it's way towards the Titans once again, picking up one of the cars that had been thrown at it earlier and almost mimicking what the Titans had first tried as she returned the car to the senders. Most of the Titans jumped out the way, however Cyborg caught the car and stopped it, the impact pushing him against the front of a store. As soon as he regained his senses, he threw it right back as if it was some dangerous game of tennis. It crashed upon the surface of Vanity, exploding in a ball of fire, but not doing all that much in the way of damage, unless you are talking about collateral damage.
And while the teen machine was trying, Scalpel and Beast Boy made their joint grand play in what had been a very close game, which was so far Vanity 1, Titans 0 and with little time on the clock. From what they had deduced, the head didn't feel the pain of the body, and so while the head was targeted, the body didn't react. So Beast Boy and Scalpel landed upon and waited patiently upon the creature's insect leg. Most people don't know this, but Scalpel always carries his medical bag on him, which would be very useful now as it had one particular blade that was used to cut very tough flesh or ligaments of creatures. Reaching into a separate compartment of the bag, he pulled out this blade, which wrapped around his fingers somewhat and curled upwards, and started to cut around the flesh, Beast Boy keeping a look out to make sure that the head didn't notice them, as well as the unpleasant job to hold apart the skin. In essence, he was amputating the leg.
"Hey." A voice came from above. Seeing the head changing targets, Beast Boy stopped Scalpel from doing any more lest they were caught. The eye of Vanity looked up in anger, then her features relaxed as Terra floated down upon the rock, her natural blonde hair waving in the wind somewhat as the dyed blonde hair of the monster teen laid lifeless across her face.
"Oh, hi." It said, looking up at Terra as she sat in front of it, all the anger it was feeling seeming to fade, leaving this outer shell, almost saddened yet still calm and pleasant. Terra tried to float down, while also trying to keep the contents of her stomach down, towards Vanity, just out of the reach of the gripping hand that had grabbed Raven and nearly had Sophie as well. The Titans playing (well ok, one was playing) doctor looked upwards, trying to work out what Terra was up to. What could she possible say that might make the creature distracted enough to ignore someone sawing off its leg?
"Yeah, I know you may want to but can you stop destroying stuff?"
The boys facevaulted so hard they nearly fell off the leg.
"Oh, okay. Want to chat?"
The boys facevaulted harder, this time hitting the concrete below with a surprising amount of sound yet no crunch. They quickly got back up however, dusted themselves off and once again climbed up the limb to try and amputate it.
Meanwhile up on the rooftops, Raven and Savior watched the attempt to rip Vanity apart while it 'slept'.
"Terra is actually doing something useful with the absolute rubbish that usually comes out of her mouth." Raven commented, almost surprised.
"She's showing a lot of bravery." The white Titan replied, watching and waiting for the moment to strike. He had told Gauntlet and Cyborg to wait in a nearby alleyway, just in case the other two needed help in disabling the beast. It might have been tough, but it wasn't immortal. He, as had most of the Titans, had gained a second sense if something was verging on the powers of a demi-god, and this was nowhere near it. It was just the lack of experience that made it harder, as most of the team they had today had less familiarity than him, and that made things a little disconcerting.
"Wait until she comes to within a few inches from her hand, and she'll run like a little girl. I can already feel the fear in her." Raven said cynically.
"Patience Raven, we have to make sure that we give the others enough time." Savior said, as he pulled out the mask that had fallen to the floor because of the creature's grasp and passed it to Sophie, who had come out of hiding and carried on watching the fight, nearly eating her gloved hand in nervous anticipation. She was scared, really scared. She had only seen such creatures in movies and on the news, but coming so close that it could reach out and grab a skintight piece of clothing was something different, something that shook her so much she could barely stand. Luckily she still had her dignity and she didn't need to change her trousers, but she was still scared none the less. Savior patted her shoulder lightly as they all watched the ongoing action.
But they were not alone in their observations, as another man, someone who had an almost sinister feel to him watched also, and he wasn't enjoying the show either. Thing was, this one was rooting for the other team, on dangerous grounds as he wanted the away team to win, and that meant the Titans had to lose. But there was more needed than victory to beat the Titans. He grimaced as he brushed back his dark, almost theatrical hair, the grey strands starting to show with age. He raised his hand and slipped it into a pocket in the outfit he wore, which seemed to be some sort of ceremonial poncho. He pulled out a large ornate silver pocket watch, around the same size as Sophie's but a lot more flamboyant when it came to the pattern, plus the fact the Undertaker's was a gold colour. His glasses reflected the etched numbers as he looked up a little. He placed the trinket into the pocket from whence it came and lifted out of another pocket a small device, it was long and thin with what looked like a rotating section on the top with a series of lights around it, though flush against the equipment so it still looked like a long piece of piping. At the moment it was set so that only a few lights were on, mainly blue… then he twisted it up towards the green scale, making sure he stopped before getting to the yellow.
The effects of this devise was devastatingly quick and visible, as in mid conversation Vanity screamed in pain, her eyes once again starting to cry that dirty water as she tried to reach up for something near her, then with devastating speed she placed the bit that had been hanging around her neck, the one that was first mistaken for a gag, in her mouth and proceeded to do it's namesake action, as she bit down hard to try and numb the pain she was feeling. She wasn't the only one suffering however, because the device gave off a VERY high pitched hum, and this was picked up by a few of the Titans, some of them covering their ears to try and block out the muted sound vibration. Yes, it was so high pitched that people couldn't actually hear it, lest you were some of the Titans or the dogs that were going crazy in the surrounding street. Gauntlet sprung into action, his artifact converting back to its full arm state so he could try and put an energy bubble around Scalpel and Beast Boy so they could continue to work. However this was less successful than thought as he didn't know what he was blocking against and therefore could only block against what he knew about, which made the barrier less effective than desired, while Cyborg tried to pinpoint whatever was making everything go crazy with the toys in his armour.
He shouldn't have wasted his time, because as soon as the cylinder like piece of technology was activated, Sophie's head shot upwards and looked directly at where the man was. If you remember, Sophie had accidentally drank some of the Man-Bat's blood and it had left her with some strange abilities, like turning into bats. It also gave a certain sensitivity to higher pitched noises to the undertaker, ultrasound and dog whistles being some of the things that set off such a sense (and for that you could probably tell she disliked hospitals or hunting grounds for these reasons because after a while they would give her a headache). Without taking her eyes off from where the noise was coming from, she reached over to grab Savior, who was intensely puzzled/alarmed at the events that were occurring. To his eyes, all he could see was that Vanity had suddenly started to jerk and move in what, Raven told him, was pain and that Scalpel and Beast Boy were also acting strange, while Gauntlet and Terra had also started to panic somewhat, not to mention Cyborg running around like, as we English say, a blue arsed fly.
"What?!" He snapped, not meaning to. He didn't want to be curt, but he was unsure of what was going on and he didn't like being left out of the loop, and this was one loop that even his powers couldn't pick up on. It improved his brain, shifted pain and even protected organs and recreated brain matter (or wiped out someone else's), but it didn't make him pitch sensitive. Sophie would have jumped back a little, however she was far too distracted by the sound, and it was driving her mad.
"Up there!" She pointed to the top of a building. Unfortunately, the sun had just started to move behind the midway point and started to fall over the top of the other building, and this made seeing what she was pointing at was a little difficult, plus the fact Savior didn't trust her as far as he could throw her, then again with the Shimmer that was a pretty long way. However, when he looked up he saw nothing. And why should he, he wasn't looking for anything. He didn't even know what the hell she was going on about. "The noise is coming from there!"
"Noise?" Raven asked, trying to look over as well.
"Can't you hear it?" She asked, finally breaking her gaze from the spot were it was and looking at the pair.
"No but you apparently can, and if you're on the level I know who else can!" Savior called down to Cyborg
"I'm way ahead of you man! That cord in the back of her coat really works wonders." Cyborg shouted through the communicator, making it spill out of the com-device on the other side, which was Sophie's jacket. A slight blush came across Sophie's face: she had thought that the communicator in the jacket was just an elaborate bluff. She hadn't expected them to actually put a cord in the back of it that picked up on every word she said. And she had said some things that she didn't really want to say in front of others, like promising to God that if he made sure she stayed alive she would become his devoted follower. She had also said that she would remain a virgin if he got her out of this mess. She just hoped that the others hadn't picked up what she had blurted out in a moment of stress. She buried her face in her purple-gloved hands as her face turned beetroot from embarrassment. The sorceress near her caught on anyway, being an empath, as Savior tried to spy what was causing the high frequency din.
"You don't have anything to worry about." She whispered out of earshot of Noel. Sophie didn't look up. "Only Cyborg is connected up to your jacket, no one else can hear what you say. Besides, most of the com links are turned off to the bandwidth we use."
"What about the radio stations?" She asked, looking up, her face well and truly red.
"You'll be heard on Iraq FM if that's what you mean, or any one using our bandwidth without permission. But all the radio stations have been warned that we are using this particular bandwidth, as are the police, and even then you are on a slightly different frequency, so only you and I will know about your deal with the 'almighty'." She said the last bit somewhat flatly. She knew demons existed, and she knew creatures with omnipotent powers existed, but she wondered if God existed at all. Well, she was half demon and god's presence didn't really concern her that much. Despite this new comforting news, the civilian was still glowing that same bright red and trying to hide her face from the world.
The figure didn't like this new change of events. His control device had made them aware of his position. With his teeth grinding against each other in anger, he reached for his watch again. And once again he placed it back in anger. Each step of his plan needed to last a certain amount of time, and if he ran now his plan would be in trouble. He needed to think of something, anything. And once again his educated mind reached for the control and once again he twisted the end, making the lights go up from green, to yellow with just a dash of orange in it. Anything to make sure this plan worked. Anything to make sure that he would not fail again.
Vanity thrashed, pain spasming through her body before she grabbed hold of Terra, her human hand holding her in a surprisingly powerful grasp.
"Just… kill me!" She pleaded.
Terra wasn't able to cope with this; her body almost shorted out, unsure of what the hell was happening, but she knew she didn't expect what was going to happen next.
Vanity passed out. After what seemed like an eternity of pain and struggling, the controlling body just gave out, unable to take the pain any more. The teen collapsed inside of the creature itself, leaving the frame to think. And without a conscious mind it went into a survival mode, and suddenly latched onto the idea that someone was attacking it. This was where it became dangerous, as it lashed out with all of its limbs, gorging huge scathes into the walls and shops, glass shards and huge chunks of wall collapsing upon the street bellow. Their plan having gone tits up, the Titans scrambled, making sure that any civilian that hadn't run in fear was out of danger. As for our CSI Wannabes, the legs again threw Scalpel away some distance, before he finally came to a stop a little way down the road, where there was still civilians. In fact he found a group of them as he landed through the table they were sitting at. Some of them screamed a little as Scalpel returned to the realm of the living and sat up, and then nearly keeled over again as he tried to stand up. He picked up his hat, cracked his neck and placed it upon his head once again. He rubbed his neck slightly and reminded himself that making body parts crack was a bad thing. He turned towards the frightened customers, who were staring at him in disbelief.
"What street are we on?" He asked, somewhat groggy, not realising that blood was dripping out of his sleeve, There seemed to be a bit of a pause however before he got a reply.
"3rd and Warwick." One of the men said shakily, pointing down the road. "You came from that way." He said as Scalpel turned.
"I did? I must have been thrown some distance. I apologize for interrupting your day." Scalpel said, and walked off, but not before stealing a large chunk of chicken, inadvertently making the tray it was being served on catch on fire from his blood. He really wondered why he was the unlucky one who always seemed to leave a trail of destruction and angry remarks in his wake. In the back of his mind there was always thoughts of how he stood too far out of the crowd in comparison to the much loved aliens, like Superman, the Martian Manhunter and Starfire, and the feeling that the entire city was turning on him in some way. He shook it out of his head. He was a Titan…he was respected.
Respected?
Or just feared?
He once again shook these thoughts out of his mind and jumped right into the battle again, eating the stolen piece of food on the way.
Things were not going to plan however, as now Vanity was doing more damage than expected, or at least the frame was, as it thrashed and crashed around the cramped street, meaning that the Titans had turned their attention away from the source of the noise to the creature that was under or above them that wanted to destroy everything and get out of there. But now the Titans had one advantage, they had a weak point. Though Scalpel had been thrown off, the knife he used was still imbedded in the insect leg and with the thrashing it had caused the cut to open up even more before the knife finally dislodged and stuck in the tarmac road. Now everything that the Titans could muster was being thrown at it, be it sonic blasts, shapes of energy or animal forms, all attacking this one point in the vain (heh) hope that it might disable the creature enough, to knock it down long enough, for the Titans to grab a breather or to even send it packing.
"Come on baby! Show us what's inside!" Cyborg shouted, firing off some quick blasts to open the wound of the creature even more before finally jumping out of the way as the leg that was being attacked lashed out in the general direction of the attacker. Luckily, with the head gone, the body couldn't zone in on were the attacks were coming from. Once again, as always, that was a small favour. Luck was always a big factor, but it usually worked against the Titans, so when something lucky DID happen, it was either small or too little too late, but there were those rare instances that it did help them.
This was not one of them.
The legs continued their assault upon everything that wasn't nailed down, was nailed down, and had no nails involved. Even as it did though, Gauntlet climbed the weak leg slowly, trying to dodge swipes made by other limbs to get him off, using what skill, agility and dumb luck he had gained while being a part of the Titans, and his previous experience as a member of an Ubertronian superhero group, hanging onto the limb as it thrashed around. It made getting to the weak point a little more difficult than he originally thought, but he managed it, and once he got to the top all he could really do was pause as he looked at it.
"You need to see a doctor about this, oh wait, you have."
If the others had been in earshot they would have facevaulted, because even when he was halfway up a monster's leg, he still had to say some B list banter. Savior would have groaned. Why couldn't it have been him who had left instead of Robin?
Gauntlet initiated his powers and used them to start prying apart the two sides of the limb. Ripping and squishing occurred as spurts of blood sprayed against the barrier he had created to protect him, using the energy to stop the blood from getting on his whiter than white t-shirt and brand new denims. He had only got them the other day in the lull that had been the lack of any incredibly bloody villains and he didn't want this set to be ruined like the previous set. Or rather sets. Seemingly the level of the villains always seemed to suddenly jump when he got new clothes, making things a lot bloodier than they needed to be.
In the end it wasn't Gauntlet or any of the other Titans that caused the leg of the creature to fall, but the creature itself. In a desperate attempt to get rid of whatever was attached firmly onto its being, the limbed frame struck downwards to where Gauntlet was, a giant open palm coming down full speed. Ironically it was open, like someone wanting to squash a bug, while the 'Bug' was standing on the insect limb. The huge appendage crashed down, Rob just managing to jump out of the way, using the Gauntlet to make a sort of slide that allowed him to glide away from the blow. Never serious, even now.
"Back, safe and sound and, for once, clean." He smiled as Scalpel strolled casually up to him, eating the last of the chicken he had swiped. Cyborg joined them, finally allowing his cannon to reform to his hand. Terra, having at last gotten the cobwebs out of her mind also joined them, as did Beast Boy.
And those were Rob's 'Famous last words' as the congealed blood that was holding back the veins gave way as the limb fell to the ground with a thud, semi solid blood spraying from any open tube or vessel, over everything that came in it's way. This included the five Titans, who was standing neatly in front of the now severed limb, meaning they got a first hand view of what would happen if Tarantino did zombie movies.
The group blinked their eyes open as they stood there, completely covered in gunk and grime.
"EEEWWWW!!" Terra shouted, both her fists clenched in front of her. Beast Boy mirrored her look of utter disgust.
"This... will NEVER wash out." Gauntlet said, as he sighed.
"I'll be getting this out of my system for the next month or so." Cyborg commented, his shoulders also slumping. Scalpel just blinked a few times, then looked at his now ruined chicken leg, and threw it over his shoulder with a shrug, before starting to try and shake the stuff off, much to the other's verbal protests.
"Well it can only improve the design on his jacket." Savior darkly remarked, as he leaned against the edge of the rooftop. He had never liked the pattern on any of the jacket's their alien male had. He thought the designs were awfully gaudy and too excessive for his simple tastes; he liked his white leather jacket, white denim trousers/jeans and near-white blue shirt (or rather, the highly refined body armour that LOOKED like a white leather jacket, white denim trousers/jeans, and near white blue shirt). The only thing that was a different colour was the blue headband he wore sometimes, just to make sure that he wasn't blinded by sweat during particularly heated combat. He couldn't find one in pure white, and seeing as it was part of his original costume he wanted to keep it. He wouldn't call it a 'Lucky Charm', more of a slight familiarity and a constant reminder stating even he wasn't perfect, even HE started somewhere.
"Perhaps, but we still haven't really addressed that problem yet. I think he might feel a little down if you took his jackets away from him." Raven said.
"I don't think they look too bad." Sophie commented, peering over the edge a little.
"Trust me, it glows in the dark." Savior retorted.
"Your point being?" Raven questioned.
"A uniform shouldn't GLOW in the DARK!"
"What about Buzz Lightyear?" Sophie asked quietly, looking over at the white teen. He thought back to the movie Toy Story and realised that she was indeed correct. Buzz Lightyear did glow in shaded areas. And with that, Light-weight had sunk his point. He fumbled for a comeback, not wanting to be outsmarted by an undertaker who skipped school to work.
"Lightyear is fictional." He simply stated, before he carried on watching what was happening. Raven shrugged and Sophie softly smiled to herself before a sudden jerk forward by Savior caught the girls' attention. His face, and his mindset, had transformed from the semi-serious look of those in a quick discussion to an alert, vigilant look as he strained to look closer at what had caught his eye. The Titans on the ground started to panic as they backed away from the blood that was still flowing, as Vanity's body started to slip on its own life fluid, before it righted itself and stopped. Coming down from the survival high, and without a mind, the body stopped its movement, but there was now another problem.
"What the..." Savior questioned as the blood looked like it had started to, from a distance anyway, bubble.
This wasn't true, even if it looked like it.
What was happening was a lot more worrying.
The blood that was on the ground and on the Titans had started to bubble…but the bubbles weren't bubbles at all, because they were not round, but almost…shaped.
Then it happened: the bubbles burst, leaving small red things. No one could see what they were, until of course they sprouted wings and flew upwards, brandishing sharp claws and fangs.
They were insects, and not particularly happy looking ones at that.
Savior couldn't explain it, but somehow insect Larva had found their way into the blood stream of Vanity and mutated…or were they already mutated? They didn't want to find out because as soon as they were up, the new things shot off in different directions, attacking civilians and Titans alike, trying to suck blood up to feed them, to replace the putrid muck they fed off of when they were in a more infantile state.
THEN there was screaming. First it was Terra, who tried to pry the things out of her gloves, then it was Beast Boy, whose fur had been covered with these creatures. Scalpel was next as he started to try and claw them out of his mouth as he unfortunately had his mouth OPEN when the blood had gushed, leaving Gauntlet and Cyborg last, Cyborg trying to pry them out of his systems and Gauntlet trying to use his artifact to pry them off of him, even if they were at skin and below skin levels.
Then things started to go to a very hot place in a basket we have all heard of. From their vantage point, the remaining members of the Titans plus the civilian could see what looked like a cloud of red beasties going every were, like a swarm of locus greeting everything in their path with a pair of fangs.
"TITANS! I don't care what you have to do! Kill those bastard things!" Savior shouted down as they continued to scurry around, trying their hardest to kill them. Scalpel had resorted to using his crescent-like blade as a fly swatter, squashing as many of the things as humanly possible. Terra was doing the same using the pavement slabs. Even if they were mixed with water, they were once stone and gravel and hence still under her jurisdiction. Beast Boy was running around a little, contemplating if a Venus flytrap was an animal or a plant. When he concluded it was a plant he cut out that option and turned into one of his more favoured forms, the gorilla, squashing them within his large hands. Gauntlet and Cyborg, having finally gotten the Vanity Bugs off of their bodies, had made their way over to the limp form of the mother creature that spawned those things and started to cauterize the wound that was flowing with blood that was spawning the insects. Luckily, once they were able to stop the actual flow of blood, it made the task of killing the things somewhat easier. Not a lot, but somewhat.
"Come on, we have to join in!" Savior said, stepping up and off the side of the building. Raven also stepped up but paused, as she had noticed that Sophie had taken out a pen and paper and started to write.
"What are you writing?" She asked, puzzled. The young woman didn't reply, but she showed her the page, which contained a brief account of what had happened and a cleverly worded answer to most questions asked by the press. Raven shook her head.
"We don't speak to the press, so there is no need for a press conference statement. We mostly hate them, they hate us, or rather the other way around. I know it's morbid but a part of me was somewhat glad when the entire editorial team for the Daily Far-Cry newspaper was slaughtered, I didn't want them to die, but at least now they would be off of our backs."
And Raven jumped down, finishing it there. The Daily Far-Cry, as regular readers will know, was decimated by the arrival of the White Hole, Rebecca Styles. In the past they had printed some rather unflattering stories about the Titans, and other visiting super heroes. Despite their saying "We bring the truth, even if it hurts", they seemed to take a particular enjoyment when it came to picking apart a super hero: even if they had put their life on the line for Jump City, the paper would slander them. They had been lucky when the Final Night and the Last Wish happened, as their office had been spared both times. Unfortunately, that time they were not so lucky. I suppose its Karma; after all even after the Titans risked their lives to destroy the Lord, they still got a bad rep whenever the media found an opening…
But I am straying off onto a tangent. Again.
The man standing at the top of the building smirked. The back up had worked better than even he had planned: the Titans were covered in the Vanity Bugs and were running around like the proverbial headless chickens. That might become an actuality with the creature swinging his sharp weapon in the almost haphazard way he was. He smiled and started to press buttons, and a device that almost seemed like a plunger for a load of TNT shot from the end of his control device, and when all the Titans had split up and gone away to squash the insects, he slammed it down. On the road, Vanity jolted a little, before it continued to spasm and finally allowed its being to come back to life. The head of Vanity looked up a little, and even though her eyes were blurred and her mind foggy, she still managed to get that one primal thought into her mind and she did it with surprising speed. She escaped, running, or rather limping, away.
When Savior came back after finally wiping up all the insects, blood splats all up his arms and torso, even some in his hair and body, and he saw the slight depression on the ground were Vanity fell, yet no Vanity, he could only continually curse. However, I'll stick with one universal one.
"Shit."
"I still don't get how we managed to loose a creature of that magnitude!" Victor Stone shouted, his arms raised as they made their way back into the tower, each of them covered in gunk, blood, sweat and even some tears.
"All I understand is that I may not eat something for at least a good day or so." Nigel commented, as he finished trying to pick bits of bug off of his tongue. He had thrown up twice already, and he didn't want to make it a third.
"Shame, it was Sophie's turn to cook." Terra said slyly.
"M-mine?!" She replied, taking the mask she borrowed off.
"Well seeing as you are taking up one of the rooms, you can take one of the meal slots. It's only fair."
"I can cook well enough for my own means, but for others..."
"I thought you said she knew how to make a really nice omelette..." Noel asked, as Raven rubbed his somewhat aching back. He'd slipped up on some of the blood and came down hard on the concrete. He would never admit it, but at times he loved the little things that Raven did for him, like the times she pampered him somewhat.
"She knows how to make it, if she can or not is a different question." Raven replied, blood trickling down her nose.
"I say we get some ice cream, something nice and sweet." Rob stated, also somewhat hunched over.
"Dude, as the one who suffered the most in that I think I should get to pick." Garfield Logan piped up, green patches of his fur a sort of orange/red colour from where the bugs had gotten stuck in said fur and so just started to bite him again and again.
"You?!" Nigel asked incredulously. Yes, being bitten hurt, but he had been bitten from the inside out!
"Well you said you couldn't eat for ages!"
"I may have changed my mind." Scalpel replied, folding his arms, trying to look noble…and failing as red blood flowed down his nose and to the tip, rolling off the end, completely obliterating any point he had made. This made Sophie smile as the others laughed lightly, finally making their way to the lounge.
Only to get somewhat of a shock.
The doors slid open lightly as the Titans all started to de-gear themselves, some removing jackets and cloaks, while others started to take off boots and goggles…
And then Victor suddenly stopped, too abruptly, so that Rob, who had been walking too close behind him, slammed face first into his armour. Everyone else quickly walked or slammed into the block as well.
"Ow! What the hell is going on!" Noel cursed, and as he and the others started to look around they saw why.
Standing there, in the middle of their main room was a young woman, no older than the Titans and defiantly no younger. She was tall and had a strikingly attractive figure. Her clothes were simple, a light summer shirt and denims as her very long, fire red hair hung over her shoulder as she turned, revealing completely emerald green eyes. She had a bag in one hand and a suitcase next to her. She smiled lightly, but it had a warmth to it that none of the others could have produced, a sort of boundless energy tucked away under the exterior.
"Hello friends, I am home." She greeted them with open arms, her smile continuing to shine.
"Kory." Vic announced (well, he almost whispered it to start with), nearly in shock, but the sudden revelation made Nigel step back a little and into the shadows, hoping not to be seen at all. In his mind, he still felt guilty for what happened to her, even though he was told it wasn't his fault. Still, he just couldn't feel right around the young Tamaranean princess, and he didn't want to be seen by her, so he tried to slip away.
Unfortunately, he found his path blocked.
"You're going to have to talk to her sometime Scalpel." Raven stated, rather bluntly. But Scalpel didn't turn back to Starfire; he only looked to where he had decided to go.
"Why should I ruin her happy return?" He questioned, before going down the dark stairs. The block broken, the others poured into the room, Sophie hanging back, not sure what to say or do. Eventually she too made a quick escape, as she decided that her time would be better spent trying to find a bathroom, or maybe a proper kitchen than just standing there. She didn't know if she was really allowed, but she did it anyway. The others however, decided that now was a good time to confront on the sudden and abrupt return, each joyful even though somewhat confused at what was happening.
"Kory, I thought..." They began, watching her, looking her over to make sure she was the same Starfire that had left them a few months ago, it all seemed too... sudden.
"You thought I would not come back?" She replied, and then sighed and dropped the bag on her shoulder. "Where else do I have left to go? I am too out of touch with my world to go home, and I have not enough of your earth currency to go anywhere here." She sighed once more.
"Well we're always here for you Kory, you know that." Cyborg said, patting his friend on her back, smiling and laughing at the fact there seemed to be a break in the gloom.
"Thank you all, I have missed you all so very much." The young Tameranean said, as she gripped everyone in a group hug, not wanting to let go for life nor death.
"But, I thought..." Gar started, before he was silenced.
"After I received the information from Noel and Raven I felt that, although I was hurt, the only place I could really be is with the ones who care for me, and to do that I came home. I wanted to speak to you all again." There was a pause from her. Even though she was, or at least seemed happy to be back, that was soon replaced by confusion, and Raven and Noel knew instantly the next question that was going to come out of the alien's mouth as she scanned the faces that surrounded her.
"Where is Robin?"
An awkward silence filled the air, almost as bad as the pause while watching an atom bomb drop, looking at the silent shockwave before it explodes, taking everything with it. They all turned to Noel, looking for answers. He quickly engaged his brain, that same mind that had outtalked most of the clever villains and heroes in the area and could pull any quote from any book.
The same brain that had been overworked for the last few days and came up at a near blank.
"He has taken a few days a few to collect himself, he'll be back later." He stated, hoping to every level of heaven and hell that it would convince the young woman. Their luck gave them a break: she appeared to be content with what was said, as she just nodded and continued to talk to the others, leaving the white Titan to turn to his darker counterpart.
"I feel low now." He muttered.
"I'm not surprised, but it had to be done." Raven reassured him, trying to make sure he remained true to his own convictions. She pretty much agreed with him on everything he had said and done during this time as leader, even if she was just a little bit biased. The sound of joyous laughter caught the pair off guard somewhat as they too started to wonder if they should creep off to find out more about Vanity. With Kory back, Noel wondered what it did to her mental state of...
"To celebrate my return, I have made breakfast!" The orange skinned creature shouted. Raven looked at the clock on the wall. It was one in the afternoon.
Noel scratched the previous thought out of his mind. Same old Starfire, just a little more sensitive. He reminded himself to go around telling the others to curve their talk about her accident for a few months.
"Oh yes, Noel. I found this computer sheet from our main database when I returned. It was addressed to the leader of the Titans, which I figured you were, so I didn't read it. Here." Starfire said, as she suddenly had floated over to Noel's side and handed him a folded piece of paper. "I believe it's from Oracle."
"Oracle? What could…" Noel said, as he opened the paper and started reading. Kory, meanwhile, had flown back to her friends and was trying to get them to the table, while the others tried to organize a subtle way of checking if the food Kory had made was editable or not…
Their eyes all caught the motion as Noel's arm suddenly fell to his side in the limp matter of somewhat who had learned something extremely shocking.
"Noel? What's wrong?" Victor asked.
"…..Jack Drake is dead." Noel replied.
Silence.
"Who?" Gar asked.
"Jack Drake…Tim's dad…he was murdered."
Silence again.
"Oh no…" Kory replied, bringing her hands to her mouth, as it started to sink it for the others. Someone had murdered Robin's father. Someone…
But none of them were as shocked as Noel, as he realized what had happened. The thing had reached out and touched them anyway. He'd heard the rumours: Sue Dibny, wife of the Elongated Man, murdered, Jean Loring, ex-wife of the Atom, attacked and almost hanged, Superman's civilian wife whose name Savior did not know written a threatening letter…and worse, whispers of dark deeds done by past members of the JLA that may have somehow brought this all about…and now it had reached out and touched the Titans. Jack Drake, Robin's father…dead….at the hands of…
"Captain Boomerang?" Noel said, his voice completely and utterly stupefied. That was the one part that didn't make any sense. Why was a washed up Rogue, a member of the villain caste that exclusively battled with the Flash, doing attacking Jack Drake…an attack that had left the old washout dead as well, as Jack Drake had had a gun and he had protected himself. But not well enough, as Captain Boomerang had gotten him too, and what was going on this was spinning out of control it was terrible a crisis…
He would have asked the others…except something strange was happening. He couldn't explain it really…his mind felt a little foggy, and something happened that hadn't for a while. His arm went numb, and for someone who had control over his or her body to the fine degree of detail he had, that was unusual…
Downstairs, Sophie was wandering the corridors, looking around to try and find something that resembled a stairwell, only to come across a large office. The floor was a marble colour with large windows, with equally large blinds on them. Cabinets and drawers lined what wall space wasn't taken up by windows, and in the same vein for the floor so did lab desks and a sink. A door was also there, leading into another room off to the side with a red light on it. In that room were several hospital beds and examining tables, leading over to the far side where there was a desk. It was a large, wooden piece of furniture, very wide and very deep. It was an expensive looking piece of 'setting' with a large red leather chair behind it, and in said red chair sat one Blacktrinian man, his hat still firmly planted upon his head as he shifted through the different notes and documents that had been sprawled across his desk.
"Welcome to my own personal hospital Miss Sophie." He said, looking up. She would have ducked out quickly but she knew she had been already seen and there fore just decided that it would be best to wander on in and start to look around. It was a large room indeed, but clean and somewhat comfortable. The blinds had been opened to let enough light in, but not so much that it made the room too bright. "Here for a check up?"
She nodded lightly as he stood from his desk and she walked in, closing the door behind her, the two reached the centre of the room as Nigel reached for his bag to give her a general check up (really, get your mind out of the gutter you perverts). Then he remembered that he had taken off his cape, jacket and bag. So he told her to sit on the bed while he fetched them.
"Do you smell something?" Sophie asked, sniffing the air. Nigel looked up and smiled.
"Probably the..." He cut off his own words as he sniffed as well. His eyes seemed to stretch wide before dashing for his desk, throwing open a drawer and grabbing something. "That smell is of a gas based aesthetic!" He shouted, rushing back over to her.
"Nitrous oxide?" Sophie asked, looking around at the vents.
"No, that is a laughing gas and we would be giggling on the floor. This one is designed to put patients under, probably for surgery." He lifted up a mask and placed it around Sophie's face. "Get out while you can and grab some Titans to go as well!"
Sophie slipped off the bed and made a beeline for the door, before turning back to see Nigel stumble a little.
"Scalpel!" She shouted, he just waved her off.
"Just go! It'll take a lot more than this to knock me out!" He yelled, and stood up again, dragging his bag with him and rummaging through. "GO!" He shouted one last time, as she finally did what he told her to do. He continued to search, his eyes getting heavy before he found what he needed. Undoing the cap he sniffed some of the smelling salts he kept with him. That woke him up, at least a little. With the building still filling up with gas via the ventilation, it would probably knock him out eventually but he still had enough time, he hoped at least.
Sophie ran around a little, getting lost before she came across Starfire, who was looking somewhat dazed and confused while the others started to fall asleep around her. She reached the lounge and was red faced and panting lightly, her hands reaching for her knees as she tried to gain her breath back.
"We need..." She breathed. "To get out of here!" Starfire didn't know what was going on, and she had only caught a quick glimpse of Sophie before hand, but she knew who Sophie was and nodded, coughing somewhat as she continued to stagger towards the door. The young undertaker wrapped the alien's arm over her shoulder, making sure that she could support her weight.
But it became clear that the gas wasn't the only threat. Soon there were footsteps, lots of them, heavy boots and men carrying what sounded like weapons. Darting her eyes around the room for an exit, she couldn't find one that didn't give the sounds of boots, and the boots were coming louder and louder and she panicked.
Then it occurred to her. The ventilation ducts.
"Please powers! Work!" She called to herself as she, and Kory, vanished into a whiff of bats and shot upwards, with a quiet shriek, to the ceiling. Each bat tore open the grate in the rooftop that supplied ventilation, and pushed their way through.
Just in time.
A young man, the same young man who had stepped foot in the tower earlier, moved through the door. He wore light, flowing clothing, a robe with no sleeves but plenty of cloth all over including a sash that crossed across the front of his open robes and bare chest. Of course, he wore a gasmask, even though his long, tied hair could still be seen.
"All too easy." He stated as he raised the head of Raven, laughing to himself.
"Teacher!" A man behind him called: he seemed also to be in robes, but they were much simpler ones, almost as if he was a foot soldier. "We found this one who had resisted the gas!"
A group of about seven men brought Scalpel forward as he groggily tried to stay awake. He was, however, clutching onto his bag for dear life. A bag that was soon stripped from him by the 'teacher'.
"Well then, seeing as you seem like such a strapping young man how about taking some sedatives? I think a big strong guy like you could handle a few thousand CC's." The so called 'teacher" said, as he fiddled around a little with the bag and pulled out a needle. He filled it near to the brim from a small bottle ladled Curare.
"Teacher? What if we kill him?" One of the men asked.
"It won't matter; he isn't part of our plans." He simply replied, before plunging the needle deep into the arm of the young alien, pressing hard on the end and forcing Scalpel, much against his will, into a silent stupor.
"Be careful with the ones known as Raven, Beast Boy, Terra and Savior. Bring the others also but be careful with those." He paused while the 'pupils' moved the bodies, and to be honest they were a little rough.
"Your souls will be damned if you do against my wishes! SO BE CAREFUL!" He finished bellowing.
The Titans were his.
But not all of them, which meant that they still had the upper hand.
Maybe
How long were the Titans asleep though?
An hour? A day? A few days? When in a gas-induced stupor, they couldn't really tell. Could you? I've spent the best part of a day unconscious after an operation and that only felt like an hour or so of sleep. The same could be said for them, as they were in a deep sleep and hence, had no real sense of time. But they knew that when they DID wake up, it was somewhere else, somewhere that wasn't in the tower.
And they couldn't move.
As their eyes opened up one by one, they realised that in the time they had slumbered each of them had been shackled to what could only described as a ritualistic examination table.
"Excuse me? What's going on?" Gauntlet stated as he looked around to see the others.
"We've been captured. AGAIN. Joy." Beast Boy muttered.
"Well on the bright side we get to lie down this time..." Gauntlet replied, half heartedly commenting on all the times they had been restrained by their wrists and hung, much in the way they might do at the butchers. All of them were awake... save Nigel.
"Scalpel." Terra called, trying to wake him up. Nothing but a light snore. "Scalpel!" She tried again, still nothing. "SCALPEL!" He tried to shoot upwards with the final bellow, only to find his wrists above him and hence, accidentally dislocating one of his shoulders, making him give off a yell.
"Spare parts not included..." Cyborg commented with a cringe. Most of the Titans cringed a little as they tried to find a way out of their predicament. It seemed pretty clear that Mad Mod was making a killing on those power repressors as their powers had once again been deactivated, which is probably why Nigel's shoulder was so easily dislocated.
"I never like these situations." Noel commented, looking around unimpressed. "This whole situation has a feeling of... of..."
"Deja Vu?" Raven questioned, looking around. "Well we've become targets and how to disable us has spread amongst the lower circles. We are not perfect, but the fact we can get out of these situations is why we are famous."
"What do you mean LOWER circles?" This new voice was deep and experienced, a slight melancholy sat on the edges of the voice. His walk was tall and proud as he was flanked by two men, one carrying some form of riffle while the other carried a console. The man who addressed them carried nothing but a silver pocket watch that was attached to the poncho like clothing that ordained his torso. Lines on his forehead only paved the way to his hair that spiked upwards and then circled back with spikes in an almost comical or anime style. Simple glasses framed his cold dark eyes as he stared out at the Titans, a scowl on his lips. "I'll have you know I am the highest of the Order of man!" He stated, swinging the watch slightly. It was the man from the rooftop.
"Very well, and what may we address you as?" Noel asked, calmly.
"My disciple's call me High Priest Nickleson, but you may call be Doctor Nickleson." Dr Nickleson stated, not a wit of respect in his voice.
"Are you the one who murdered Sue Dibny and Jack Drake?" Noel asked.
"Who?"
"Guess no. Great, a brand new mess. Lovely." Noel muttered.
"What do you want with us?" Cyborg stated, just as calm and collected as Noel, as he, too, had gone through this routine a few times.
"I want nothing with you, Scalpel or Gauntlet." Nickleson stated lightly. "However the others have managed to win the privilege of becoming part of our... god." He said. He laughed lightly, yet he still looked serious, almost angry. Raven rolled her eyes. She had seen gods; she has been in close enough to actually spit in their faces, though she hasn't yet.
"Just another madman." she thought out loud, looking over at Noel and the others, who just nodded.
"I'm more than a madman young miss Raven." Nickleson said, as he walked over to her and looked down upon her trapped body. "I'm the next step in this religion."
"Cult more like."
His eyes grew more harsh.
"You won't be saying after you have become part of a god." He sneered, and clicked his fingers.
"Prep them for surgery." He said, pointing to one half of the room. "As for them, let my God's protector have them." He pointed to the three that he had stated as useless.
"Prep us?!" Beast Boy yelled, trying to struggle loose.
"You, Miss Raven, are the first lucky person to become part of our leader and you get my best disciple to play with your innards." Nickleson said. He stroked his finger along the edge of the table before rubbing his neck slightly.
"Hold it!" Savior shouted. "Time! WHY do you want to make a god? I know it sounds like a stupid question, but I'd like to know, ESPECIALLY considering your chosen order!" Savior yelled, his anger welling up inside at the thought that someone would try and hurt her.
"If god made man in his image, then man should be able to make god in his." Dr Nickleson simply replied before he reached down at the console his guard carried and pressed it. A piece of floor shot open and the three 'useless' Titans' found their tables flipping up and themselves sliding off them and falling down into the hole, each yelling.
"And to do that we need to take you apart and fiddle around till your powers are part of him." Nickleson finished. He smirked one last time before walls came out and separated the room up, leaving the still captured Titans alone and somewhat confused.
Downstairs however, the men landed uncomfortably into a pile of what seemed to be whole skeletons and corpses, painfully. Off the power blocking apparatus of the tables, their abilities had been returned to them.
"Why can't they ever give us lifts? Why is it always a drop?" Gauntlet shouted. "And why were WE singled out?!" He demanded. "I feel cheapened!" Getting to his feet, he dusted himself off and charged out his namesake weapon just to check it still worked.
"That is something we won't find out till we actually get back up there and kick his ass." Cyborg commented, helping up Scalpel. "You okay?"
"Yes, just stay there..." He pulled himself up and lined up his shoulder to Cyborg's torso. There was a pause as he pulled back, leaving an expression of confusion of the faces of the two young super heroes, only realising what Scalpel did when he slammed his shoulder forward into his friend's metal torso. With a bit of a crunch, said body part was back in place, but boy did it hurt. "Thanks." He stated, patting the chest of Cyborg while the young alien tried to regain his composure.
"Ow!" Gauntlet called before pulling out a leaflet. "Perhaps chiropractors might be your way forward?" He handed the note on the bone specialists to Scalpel, who just looked at strangely. He laughed a little before straightening.
"Where are we?" Rob continued talking, looking around. He looked up at the wall and saw there was a huge scratch carved into it. Using the light on his shoulder, Victor lit up the indentation only to realize it was a word.
"Oh shit."
"Hello boys." A voice called.
Vanity.
Jedi: Finished! GAH! This chapter took forever! Man! It was long!