Poor Twisted Me Chapter 17
Hi! Ozzy again! Seems everyone hates the spiders...Okay, nothing that I can think of that needs to be announced, so I guess I'll answer reviews!
Kestrel- I picked spiders because the next few chapters are going to be more horror based, and the goal of horror is to strike fear into the hearts of readers. What better way to strike fear than with spiders?
Krystal Lily Black- Yes, I do love scaring the crap out of people! 'Tis fun! I don't like spiders either, but I love them in story form! They're so creepy and awesome!
Exiled-Knight- Sí! Hablo español! Thanks! I'm flattered!
Mrs. Myxztipik- Are you entirely sure Carmen's gone for good? Heehee...
PrincessCat- Wow, we're energetic, aren't we? Anyways...wait a minute...DAMMIT! I thought I was being real original with that cathedral! Wahhh...
Moezy-chan- You'll see what'll happen!!! Muahaha.
Dream maven- Well, you'd be surprised. Given the right scenario, anyone will swear like that. But, that's just my opinion
Snea- yes, there has been a lot of fights. And there will be a bunch more! Muahaha!
ScarletAngel68- Hi! What's up? Dude, those words of comfort are hilarious! I am definitely going to use those! That is, if you don't mind. Okay, I got an alternate word for cool: hella awesome. Something with the word 'hella' in it. I love that word. Muahaha. As for the second act, I don't want to give too much away, but I'm planning a really funny scene at a bar. I've already got it all planned out...muahaha. Holy crap, I say that a lot. No, it's not Slade! I don't like Slade, 'cause he's all normal-like and boring. Thanks for taking note of that! Yes, this is still the first act! Okay, 39,709 words...think I can pull that off in one chapter?
Soraoathkeeper- hi! Okay, I'll keep that random thought in mind. Teehee. Anyways, yes, I was trying to hint the connection between Izevm and Deep Throat with that scene. Unfortunately, you were the only one who caught that. As for the pairings, I find them both equally interesting, but it's just easier to write BBRae for me.
On with the story! Oh, and this whole chapter will sound a lot better if you listen to 'Doomsayer' by Hatebreed while your reading. Also, apoligies in advance for the chapter being so short.
"Holy crap!" Robin said as the giant fireball came flying towards them. Starfire, with her quick reflexes, swiftly flew out of harm's way, although she could feel the heat of the fireball on her cheek as it sailed by, harmlessly dissipating against the wall. The spider was not slowed by its attack, however, and leapt from its perch on the wall towards the still recovering Starfire. The Tamaran did not have the impulse to dodge this time, allowing the spider to tackle her out of the air. It knocked her with such brute force that she dropped Robin from her arms. Grabbing her mid-air with its thick and hairy forearms, it directed its fall down to the ground, the air ruffling its thick fur as they fell.
"Starfire!" Robin yelled as he plummeted through the air. Using his cat- like spontaneous effort, he moved his body toward a pillar nearby. Grabbing onto a large rock that jutted out about twenty feet from the ground, he took out his bird-a-rang. Taking careful aim, he threw it with all his might.
The spider, with Starfire still in its grasps, landed brusquely on the ground, its massive legs absorbing the shock. Holding the Tamaran in its forearms, it gnashed its fangs together and pushed its head closer to the trapped girl. Starfire screamed and struggled, but could not break free of the creature's ironclad grip. Her eyes turned a brilliant shade of emerald, and thin bolts of energy shot out from her eyes. But to her great disparagement, they were reflected harmlessly off the spider's obdurate exoskeleton. All of a sudden, however, a flash of steel came flying toward the spider, making a very loud whistling sound as it went. The spider turned around to see what the noise was, and abruptly roared loudly with pain. When Starfire had regained herself enough to make heads or tails of what happened, she saw Robin's bird-a-rang sticking out of one of the spider's eye, half in yet half out. The spider roared again with pain, green and black blood flowing out of the wound freely.
It then hit her. 'The monster's eyes are its weak spots!' she thought to herself.
She managed to wedge herself free because of the spider's new preoccupancy and flew over to Robin, who was still hanging from the same column. Picking him up, she yelled out loud, "Robin! The creature's eyes are its weak spots!"
Robin lit up and said, "Yes! That's it!"
Using one of its forearms, the spider managed to tear out Robin's bird-a- rang, its eye spewing blood in the process. Turning towards its airborne adversaries, it roared with all its might. It scooted back a little and shook its head ferociously, its seven good eyes focusing on Robin and Starfire. Lunging forward swiftly and hastily, its shot a volley of fireballs out of its mouth, each one moving behind the other in succession. Starfire yelped reflexively and sprinted to her left, easily dodging the slow-moving fireballs. Flying in a zigzag pattern, she effectively managed to evade each of the creature's attacks. The spider roared in frustration, spewing more fireballs with each passing second.
Meanwhile, their comrades were trying not to get eaten by the smaller army of spiders. Raven was flying above the ground well enough on her own, but Beast Boy and Cyborg were having a tougher time. Beast Boy couldn't fly as well and fast as Raven while carrying Cyborg, and to make things worse, the spiders could jump. High.
"Little help here!" Cyborg said, knocking a spider off of his arm. Raven saw their predicament, and rushed over to help.
"Azareth Metrion Zinthos!" she yelled, raising her hands up above her head. A large chunk of the ceiling began glowing black and detached itself from the rest of the ceiling. She brought her hands down quickly and abruptly, the chunk of ceiling moving in unison with her hands and crashing to the floor, crushing hundred of spiders underneath it. To her great dismay, however, there were still far too many spiders. To make matters worse, the survivors merely crawled over the boulder and used it as a means of jumping higher.
Raven was out of ideas. Evidently, the spiders were smarter than her.
She didn't have to think for long, however, as a giant fireball went sailing by her, singing the tips of her hair. Whipping her head around, she spied Robin and Starfire flying around wildly. She looked harder and saw the giant spider chasing after them, bounding along and discharging balls of fire. Venom continued to drip from its fangs continuously, the drops of venom plummeting down to the ground, melting the unlucky spiders it made contact with.
'Wait a minute...' Raven thought to herself. Taking careful aim, she summoned a sphere of dark energy in her hand and threw it at the spider. Although it didn't make a scratch, she managed to get the attention of the huge monster. Jumping onto a wall fifty feet above the ground, it roared at Raven and shook its head viciously.
The Azareth grinned, lowered herself down closer to the ground, and began taunting the spider. The huge creature roared again and shot a huge fireball out of its mouth. Raven dodged nimbly out of the way, high above the spider. Raven smiled as she saw the fireball sail on towards the ground, incinerating hundreds, maybe thousands of spiders as it landed. A huge, blackened scorch mark appeared where it had landed, probably twenty feet wide and just as long. Raven took too long to recover, however, and when she looked back up, she saw the gnashing fangs of the spider inches away from her face. Quickly, she summoned a barrier of energy using her powers, but when the spider hit it, Raven was knocked back with such force she went sailing across the room, crashing against the wall on the other side. Shakily, she regained herself, but not before faltering around mid- air.
The spider landed on the ground nimbly and prepared itself for another attack. It settled back and leapt towards Raven, but was knocked out of the air by a blue beam coming from the side. Raven looked for its source and saw Cyborg riding a green pterodactyl, sonic cannon out.
"Your welcome!" Cyborg yelled. Raven rolled her eyes and flew over to the spider, which was lying in a pile of rubble.
"Azareth Metrion Zinthos!" Raven yelled, her eyes turning black. A large amount of the rubble near and around the spider became enshrouded in a black aura, lifting themselves up off of the spider as Raven brought her hands up. Her hands moving in perfect unison with the rocks, she abruptly swung her hands down forcefully. The rocks hovered for a moment, and then brought themselves down vehemently upon the still recuperating spider. The spider roared in pain under the crushing weight of the huge boulders, squirming with all its might to get free. It spat out venom furiously and wildly, but none of them hit their mark. Instead, they all managed to find their way back to the floor, killing a large number of the spider army. It squirmed harder and harder, but found itself getting buried further and further under the pile of rocks. Cyborg leapt down from Beast Boy and began blasting the remaining spiders, of which there were very few.
Beast Boy landed next to Raven and shifted back into his normal form. Grinning he sidled up to Raven and said, "You know, one day we'll all look back on this and laugh. If we don't die, that it."
Raven rolled her eyes and pushed Beast Boy away.
Unknown to the Titans, however, Izevm was watching them from the ceiling, invisible. He had shifted into an intangible form, preventing all touch and sight. Spying the Titans' feat, he growled and flew up into the highest room where he resided. Resuming his normal, corporeal form, he approached the mirror through which he and his master communicated.
Standing in front of the mirror, he watched as the mirror radiated an immersed, dark shade of red. The familiar cloud of burgundy interlaced with black and blue appeared, slowly swirling around like it was going down a drain. The cloud demystified and vanished, replaced by the ethereal head of his master.
The face encompassed a look of serenity and said with a deep, thundering voice, "What is it, my acolyte?"
Izevm bowed deeply and said, "Many apologies, sir, but the Titans have defeated the spiders."
"Is that so?" the incorporeal head said, resuming a look of pondering before continuing, "I think the only way to be rid of them is to pick them all off individually. Their strength must lie in teamwork, an easy hurdle to get over. Booby-trap the hallway. We'll see how easily they can get through that."
Izevm bowed again and said, "Yes, my lord."
"Look! An exit!" Beast Boy yelled, pointing to an obscure hallway that lay off to the side. Robin looked at it dubiously and said, "Beast Boy, are you sure we should go that way?"
Beast Boy nodded vigorously and said, "My animal instincts tell me we should. Besides, I don't see any other way."
Beast Boy ran off in the direction of the corridor, motioning for the others to follow. Robin looked at Cyborg and shrugged. Raven blinked absentmindedly and began following Robin towards the corridor, the other Titans following suit.
Upon reaching the corridor, Beast Boy immediately began regretting his choice. The corridor was dark and dank, lighted only by a few random torches sticking from the wall. It was decorated all around with skeletons and disembodied skulls, most of which were teeming with rats. Beast Boy shuddered. He didn't like rats.
To his surprise, he found another corridor splitting off from this one. This one as well, was littered with skeletons, but it had a sign right before it that said, "Shortcut" in smeared blood red ink.
Beast Boy grinned and began walking towards the sign, but was stopped by a forceful hand on his shoulder. Robin grasped his shoulder firmly and said, "Beast Boy, hold on a minute. There's something...suspicious about this place. We should turn back. Maybe there's another way to find Izevm. Or maybe he's not even in this cathedral at all. Maybe this place was just one big trap!"
Beast Boy rolled his eyes and said, "Or maybe he's waiting right at the end of this corridor! Trust me on this!"
Raven shook her head and said, "Beast Boy, for once in your life, could you not be so stubborn!?"
But no sooner had she said that, a huge stone door came crashing down in front of the entrance, trapping them inside the corridor. Robin shot a death glare at Beast Boy and said, "I rest my case."
Robin began to walk down the main hallway, the rest of the team following. Beast Boy grumbled and began to walk slowly with them, but all of a sudden, another huge door came hurtling down, this one separating Beast Boy from the rest of the Titans."NO!" Beast Boy yelled angrily. He quickly transformed into an elephant and began charging against the door, but he could not knock it down. Determined to find a way out, he shifted into the form of a groundhog and desperately tried to burrow through the ground, but that didn't work either. He furiously pounded against the door, but nothing worked.
"Beast Boy!" Robin yelled, ramming the door with all his strength. He only managed to bruise his shoulder, however.
Raven's eyes opened wide as she said, "No...Beast Boy..."
Robin shook his head and said, "Well, there's nothing to do but follow this corridor. If we're lucky, maybe the two paths will meet."
"But Robin, we can't abandon Beast Boy!" Starfire said irately. Cyborg nodded and said, "Yeah, what if he gets hurt?"
"Beast Boy's a smart kid. He'll be able to make it," Robin said, "and besides, it's not there's anything we can do about it."
With that, he began walking down the antechamber. Starfire considered arguing, but decided against it and began following Robin. Cyborg put away his sonic cannon and followed, making careful notice not to trip over one of the skeletons. Raven lowered her head and followed glumly.
Fifteen minutes later...
Starfire was casually walking along, when all of a sudden, the ground before her disappeared.
"Ahh!" she yelled. Fortunately, she had the reflexes to catch herself in mid-air before falling to what seemed like a pit full of spikes.
"Robin! What have I done to the ground to make it upset?" Starfire yelled, dangling in mid-air. Raven shook her head and said, "Nothing, Starfire. This place must be booby-trapped. We'll have to be a lot more careful."
Starfire cautiously hovered to the other side of the pit, lowering herself down onto the ground. Robin ran back a few feet, then bounded over the pit. Raven lifted Cyborg up by his arms and drifted over the hole, dropping him off at the end.
They all sighed with relief, glad to be back in safety's reach. Robin resumed walking down the vestibule.
A couple hundred feet down, the corridor changed into a more elegant surrounding, with paintings and a glass chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Robin paused for a moment to look at the painting, and then pressed onward. He paused for a moment, for he thought he heard childish laughing. He whipped around and searched the room, but could see nothing. He turned back around, only to hear the same snickering.
Robin began to get frustrated. "Okay, who the hell is making that noise?!" he yelled irritably. Cyborg shrugged and said, "I wasn't making any noise.
"Me neither," Raven said monotonously. Starfire shook her head and said, "Or me."
Robin raised an eyebrow and turned back around. Almost on cue, there it was again. He whipped back around to see what the hell it was, when he saw the people in the paintings moving on their own. Safe to say, he was fairly terrified.
Beast Boy trudged forward, tired from the long walk. To his great respite, he found light being emitted from a short distance up ahead. He had found the exit!
He laughed with joy and began sprinting towards the light, hopping over the random skull or skeleton.
"Yes!" Beast Boy yelled, having reached the light at the end of the tunnel. He laughed with joy, not yet taking in his surroundings.
"Hello, Beast Boy," came a cocky and brusque voice. Beast Boy whipped around intuitively.
"Izevm!" he yelled furiously. The evil Azareth merely chuckled and said, "Yes?"
"What the hell did you do to Jump City?"
Izevm rolled his eyes and said, "Just one tiny, insignificant step in a much larger plan, my good friend."
"Good friend my ass!" Beast Boy yelled, and transformed into a tiger. Roaring loudly, he leaped at Izevm, claws outstretched. Izevm nimbly rolled to the side and grabbed a spear that was resting next to a fireplace. Beast Boy landed off to the side, right next to a rack of swords and spears. While Beast Boy was still recovering from the failed attack, Izevm began charging towards Beast Boy with the spear extended. Beast Boy saw the attack just in time and swiftly ducked underneath it. Changing back into his neutral form, he grabbed the spear and tried to wrench it away from Izevm. While he pulled on it, Izevm lifted up his foot and kicked Beast Boy in the stomach hard. The green changeling was knocked into the wall, but regained himself quick enough to dodge the spear that Izevm rammed into the wall.
The Azareth tried to disconnect his spear from the wall, but it was stuck in there good. Beast Boy used the distraction to shape shift into a bear and knock Izevm down. Beast Boy held Izevm down by the arms with his paws, making sure Izevm had no way to move.
Izevm struggled against Beast Boy's obdurate grasp, but could not free himself. Beast Boy pushed his mouth closer and bared his fangs, blowing hot, steamy breath into Izevm's face. Izevm reached out into his mind and heard him thinking, 'This time, he's not going to trick me.'
Thinking quickly, Izevm managed to free one of his hands and grab one of the still burning embers from the fireplace. He threw them into Beast Boy's eyes and escaped his adamant grasp.
"Arghh!' Beast Boy yelled, resuming his normal form and violently pawing away at his burning eyes. While he was distracted, Izevm took a sword from the rack and tackled Beast Boy into the wall. Beast Boy regained his sight and saw Izevm raising the sword up above his head. He tried to transform, but could not do it quick enough. Izevm brought the flat of the sword down hard on top of Beast Boy's skull, knocking him nearly unconscious. He felt blood trickle down his forehead, but was unable to move his arms.
Izevm laughed evilly and brought the sword so that the tip was poking Beast Boy's stomach. "Oh, doesn't this look familiar? Ah, yes," he said, bringing his face inches away from Beast Boy's, continuing, "this is exactly how I killed Carmen."
With that, Izevm thrust the sword forward with all his might.
