Bold Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans and in no way take credit for their creation.
Chapter Thirteen
The alert seemed to have revitalized all the Titans as they were out of the tower and ready to go in seconds. Patrick and Raven met up with them mid flight. Robin was being carried by Starfire and Cyborg was being carried by a pterodactyl Beast Boy. Patrick flew forward, right next to Robin.
"What's the problem?" he asked.
"I'm not entirely sure," Robin said raising his wrist watch, checking once more, "the crime database seems to have fallen to shit. I don't think even the police know what is going on."
Patrick sighed heavily. Going against an unknown enemy was not his idea of fun. He preferred knowing what to expect and preparing his strategy accordingly. Ignorance was not his friend.
The location of the disturbance was obvious even if the cause was not. Huge towers of smoke lofted, covering half of the industrial district with its thick shroud. Patrick looked back to the others a little hesitant to speak what he was feeling. They were probably used to going against an unknown foe.
The team neared the epicenter of the destruction; a shadow of something enormous became clearer. It was gigantic, beyond anything Patrick had seen. The beast or whatever it was loomed over even the highest sky scrapers. No doubt this was the cause of all the trouble.
The team lowered, and Patrick followed suite despite his overwhelming thought that what was about to happen would not end well. They reached the ground and the two non-flying members of the titans landed and began to charge the monster, Robin shouting the undeniable words:
"Titans, go!"
It was on. Patrick powered up fully, preparing to take on whatever this was with the other team members either above or below him Beast Boy lowered and morphed into a bear, lumbering along with Cyborg and Robin. That left Patrick, Starfire, and Raven in the skies.
The team all entered the debris at the same time, blinded all the same but the soot and dust kicked up by what ever was slowly tearing the city apart.
"Damn it, I can't see," Patrick yelled out as he accelerated hoping to make his time in the blinding smoke as short as possible. It did, but as soon as he was out, he wished he hadn't escaped it. Standing in front of him was a colossal mechanized robot tearing buildings apart like matchsticks. It looked as if it had a full arsenal of weaponry, but preferred to break things with its claws.
The sounds of the metal monstrosity were loud enough to make Patrick cringe and for the moment, he was all alone with it as the rest of the team crossed the barrier.
It seemed distracted in the destruction of the city and didn't even recognize Patrick's presence. Deciding to use this to his advantage, Patrick flew towards it slowly, expecting to find some sort of weakness on it, one that would be susceptible to his fire. He saw none and was soon on the opposite side of the mech with no luck at all. The beast still had not noticed him, but he was beginning to understand why. Patrick was not a threat to it.
Soon he was joined by the rest of the team. They all stopped just as he had done to look awestruck at the monster. Patrick flew over to them and landed next to Robin.
"It completely ignored me," he said to the boy wonder as he hovered a few feet off the ground.
Robin nodded and looked spoke loudly to the entire group, "Alright, let's hit this with everything we've got."
And that they did. Each and every member of the team lunged forward and began and began assaulting the monster each with their seizure inducing powers. Patrick as well, though he was a little behind the others.
Before a single attack hit, the creature looked over towards the team, its photoelectric red eyes looking over the entire team. As Starfire's beams of bright green light hit the monster, it became clear why it was ignoring the team. The bolts hit an invisible wall, causing a ripple of energy to distort the view of the mech for a moment. The bolt dissipated along with all the other attacks that the team threw at them. And finally came Patrick's fire blast. The swirling torrent of flames and heat did nothing to the beast's armor plating though was not stopped by the energy field.
The team regrouped as the monster turned back to the destruction of the city. It was not even fighting back. Had it been organic it was likely it wouldn't have even flinched at the attack.
"Not even a scratch," Cyborg pointed out, unintentionally making a pun towards Beast Boy's situation. The energy shielding had sheered off the claws of his bear form leaving him with the world's shortest fingernails. But it seemed that Beast Boy found comedy in this despite the friction burns on his finger tips.
"I looks like it was tailored to each of our abilities," Patrick pointed out, "That shield seems to vibrate at the exact opposite frequencies of each of our powers."
The team looked surprised at Patrick's sudden sign of intelligence.
"What? Am I not allowed to be smart?" he asked with a smirk.
The robotic nemesis continued to destroy the city with its bare hands, taking its time making sure each building's structure was far beyond repair. Offices, small business, apartments, it didn't discriminate. It destroyed each one all the same, collapsing even fully inhabited buildings.
Cyborg walked over to Patrick and spoke to him.
"Your fire can go through the shielding of that thing, right?" he asked.
Patrick nodded, "But it cannot even melt the first layer of its armor. It's just too tough."
By this time Robin caught on to what Cyborg was thinking even if Patrick hadn't. He walked over and put his hand on his shoulder.
"Do you think you can open up a gap with your fire? One large enough to shoot through?" he asked.
"Yea, I think I can," Patrick said as he threw his hands forward summoning a beam of fire when he aimed right at the creature's chest plate. Slowly, it began to widen leaving a large hollow pocket where there were no flames and hopefully, no shielding.
"GO!" Patrick said in a strained voice looking over to Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg. They all fired their powers at the exact moment he commanded. The Technicolor bolts of energy went flying past Patrick's head and directly into the chest of the beast, all of them deflecting harmlessly. The mech ignored even this as it was futile to try to break through the armor.
"Raven," Patrick said, "use your power to tear off its armor." His voice was sounding more and more strained with each word. It was obvious he couldn't keep this up for long.
Raven nodded and began to focus her powers on the airtight mesh point where two pieces of the armor met. Her powers began to peel away the armor. The sounds of the bulkheads stressing was quite obvious. The metal was bound to give way shortly.
The metal beast quickly took not of its compromised security. It looked over to Raven with its glowing eyes.
"Security compromised," it spoke with a synthesized voice, "Scanning offender." It sent out a beam of light that ran over Raven's body quickly, leaving a sort of grid on her for a moment. Raven didn't move at all, dedicated to remove the mech's chest plate before Patrick lost his ability to maintain the opening. "Scan complete. Subject: Raven," The machine said as it stopped it's destruction of the buildings around it, "Processing." The machine stopped moving and talking for a moment as it began to think about the situation. "Solution Reached," it announced.
"Raven, be careful," Patrick said slowly, his words becoming more slurred as he lost touch with consciousness, keeping the gateway up being the only thing he was focusing on.
"Contain subject and return to laboratories for further observation."
"Shit, Raven… Run!" Patrick yelled his voice much cleared and louder. He collapsed his gateway and pushed her back. The machine extended one metallic claw towards Raven. Patrick stepped in its way, blocking its path to Raven. She took off. The machine changed its angle, but this time shot forward its hand unexpectedly grabbing her instantly before she could evade.
She screamed as the grip of the machine tightened on her. Starfire and Beast Boy were instantly up in an attempt to help her, but it seemed as if the shield which it had dropped to grab Raven had been reactivated.
Patrick grimaced as he stood higher; raising his arms to summon what more of his power he had left. The robotic arm was right over him, being pulled back to the body very slowly, almost as if to taunt the team. Patrick shot straight up with a blind speed and a sound resembling a gunshot. As he accelerated, he surrounded himself with a barrier of fire. He reached the barrier and flew through it and landed on the top of the machine's hand, Raven still enclosed in its grip.
"Give me your hand," he commanded.
Raven struggled and moved in the grip of the insidious machine, but to no avail. "I can't," she said still struggling to get free.
Patrick turned and ran up the arm of the beast, destined for its head. The machine's head turned and panned down to face Patrick.
"Immediate threat detected," is said, the air about Patrick rattling as the mech spoke, "Neutralizing target."
Patrick's slowed his pace as he saw the machine's eyes begin to glow a brighter shade of red. Before he could move, a blast of red hot light collided with his shoulder, knocking him off of the arm and tumbling towards the ground. He hit hard on his side, clenching his wound. The beast retracted its arm completely and began to glow white. In a blinding flash, it was gone, and Raven with it.
Patrick felt himself fading away into darkness. Someone was carrying him. He finally let his mind give way to the unconsciousness that had been haunting him for so long.