Ok, sorry for taking so long to get this chapter up. I was pretty much down with the flu all month, so I couldn't really write a lot. Anyways, sorry again, but now at least I should be able to write the next chapters faster. :P Like always, thanks to all my reviewers!
D-I-WaRrIa: Once again, great idea! I will add it into the story a little later on since I think it will work quite nicely. :) Thanks for the review, and please update your stories again soon cause they are great:D
Legato 626: Thanks for the review man. :) You're fic is awesome; I can't wait for the update. ;)
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.
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Chapter 15: Into the Jungle Temple
"Alright Titans, wake up!" Robin yelled early next morning to the group of sleeping teenagers.
"Dude, gimme me a few more minutes," Beastboy complained, hugging a dozing Terra tighter. Cyborg, who was already awake, sighed and walked over to Beastboy and Terra, picking them both up and shaking the two awake.
"Ok ok, I'm not sleeping anymore..." Terra voiced, yawning heavily after being put down.
Robin cleared his throat, "So today we're tackling the Jungle Temple. Now listen closely, the temple is huge from what King Smilax told me, so we have to stay close together. We may have to split up at some point, but don't count on it."
"And our communicators don't work, so keep that in mind ya'll," Cyborg added, checking his sonic cannon.
"Let's not waste anymore time and get this over with," Raven muttered as the teens climbed the worn stone steps to the entrance of the Jungle Temple. The Titans arrived in a narrow hallway, dimly lit by small wall torches after proceeding through the open temple entrance. Thin vines hung all over the walls and ceiling, casting crooked shadows in the torches' lights. A faint smell of trees hung in the air along with a pleasant breeze flowing from the entrance.
"Hmm, by the looks of this, I don't think there are gonna be any nasty creatures in here at all," Cyborg commented, walking down the hallway. The Titans reached a wooden door, and Robin wasted no time in opening it. A spacious chamber now met the teenagers as they walked in.
This circular chamber had a high, dome ceiling made of glass tinted green. There were four doors, each facing one of the cardinal directions. A few stairs led to each door from the lowered floor in the center of the chamber. In the center, on the low floor, stood two, six foot, golden torches each alight with a powerful green flame. In between the two was a rectangular platform magicked to hover about a foot off the ground, surrounded by an emerald aura. Dark red carpeting lined all of the floor space, and additional light was provided by a few torches that hung on either side of each of the four doors.
More vines were present, crawling up and down the walls and growing unmanaged over the dome ceiling. In the air floated tiny specks of sparkling particles, each emitting a soft color at random. All in all, the place looked undisturbed for years, though how the torches were still alight puzzled the Titans.
"Yo, this place is..." Cyborg began.
"Absolutely beautiful!" Starfire finished, her eyes sparkling in delight trying to take in as much of the view as possible.
Robin followed the stairs directly in front of him down to the torches in the center, trying to get a better view. Instead, he proceeded to examine the floating platform. "Any idea of what this does?" The Boy Wonder questioned, unable to figure out the purpose of the platform.
"Maybe it's just there to make this room look cooler," Beastboy suggested.
Shaking his head, Robin went ahead to try to step onto the magicked staging.
Right before Robin could hop on, a calm voice filled the room. "I wouldn't touch that if I were you..."
The Titans took their stances, expecting the worst. "Who said that! Show yourself!" Robin called out, looking in various directions, but failing to find the being that the voice belonged to.
The being spoke again, "Relax, I mean no harm. In fact, I'm here to help you." At that moment, a short, bald man walked through the directly opposite to the Titans. The man stood at about five and a half feet and wore a ragged brown robe. One of his eyes was large and attentive, the other was small and beady. His skin was wrinkled, mainly because of time, and he limped as he walked.
"Please, who are you?" Starfire questioned, calming down.
The pale man slowly but surely approached the group. "My short name is Alex, so you may call me by that. Like I said before, I can help you break the barrier."
"I really don't think we should just, you know, go ahead and trust you," Beastboy spoke up, "No offense, but I just can't help thinking that you're planning a trap or something." The rest of the Titans seemed to agree with the shape shifter on that point.
Alex tried to defend himself, "I can assure you that my intentions are good! Why else would I spend almost my entire life here waiting for someone to break the barrier?"
"You spent your entire life here?" Terra asked, amazed.
"Well, yes," Alex replied, "Anyway, I know this temple and almost every passage in it. So, will you accept my offer?"
The Titans took a minute to discuss this, and they all agreed that there was really nothing to lose. "Ok then, I guess we can trust you. So, what do we do?" Robin said.
"Excellent! So this is what you have to do first. That platform is actually an elevator that leads to the temple's second basement where the barrier is supposed to be. The only way to remove the magic protecting it is to activate three switches. There are three available doors, as you see. Each one leads to one of the three switches. Once all of them are activated, the elevator will be usable once again and you will be able to find the barrier." Alex explained, rather pleased of his efforts.
"This doesn't sound too bad," Cyborg said, "If we all split up and take on each switch, then this will be a piece of cake."
"Sounds good to me," Robin said, "Thanks Alex for your help, we really appreciate it."
The pale man smiled, though weakly, "Not a problem. Anyway, I will be outside for the remainder of the day, good luck." And with that, Alex left the temple through the same door that the Titans came through.
"Well then, so let's get started," the Boy Wonder said, "Cyborg and Raven, you take the door on the east. Beastboy and Terra, take that door towards the north. Starfire and I will take the western door. After you activate the switch, meet back here. Everyone got it?" The Titans all nodded in understanding and each pair proceeded towards their assigned door.
-
(Robin and Starfire)
"You know, this place isn't half as bad as I thought it would be," Robin said as he and Starfire walked down a long and winding corridor. The soft light from the many torches mounted on the walls actually made a pleasant atmosphere.
"I agree," Starfire said, looking around, "Maybe we won't have to fight any..."
"Star! Watch out!" Robin dove and was able to move the Tamaranian princess out of the way from an incoming creature. "What is that?" Robin helped Starfire up while looking at the thing that almost collided with her. The creature looked like an overgrown spider, it's eight legs where colored a venomous green. However, the trait that really made it stand out was that it had a old, decaying skull, about the size of basketball, for a body.
"I don't believe this kind of animal exists on Earth," Starfire pointed out, the two teens backing away from the approaching spider.
"Ah come on," the Boy Wonder said, still moving away, "I know it looks weird, but it can't be that strong..." At that moment, the spider type creature hissed and started running full speed at the two unsuspecting Titans.
"Never mind, run like mad!" Robin and Starfire both started sprinting away in the opposite direction. The spider, though it had no visible eyes, was able to stay in hot pursuit. Much to the teens' relief, the end of the corridor was in sight along with another door.
Robin and Starfire dashed a bit faster and outran the spider for a moment, enabling them to quickly barge through the door, shutting it tightly behind. "Ok, that's the last time I'm underestimating a spider." Robin sighed, causing Starfire to giggle.
The two ended up in a small room with a staircase going down right in front of them. Instead of the cream colored stone, the walls were now made of a cold gray brick. The torches were replaced by metal lanterns hanging from the ceiling, limiting light slightly and creating the feel of a dungeon from a horror movie.
"Oh great, looks like we got the basement..." Robin muttered, starting to descend the worn stairs.
"Fear not, Robin," Starfire chirped, "the switch cannot be much farther away."
"Yeah I guess... wait up!" Robin stopped abruptly, starting down the dark staircase for any signs of movement. "I could have sworn that I've seen something move. And Starifre, don't worry, I'll protect you." The Boy Wonder said, feeling something touch his shoulder, assuming it was Starfire.
However, the Tamaranian teen was standing farther away from him. "Um, Star, are you touching my shoulder?" Starfire shook her head, and Robin gulped as he realized that the hand resting on his left shoulder had long, brown, bark-like fingers, much unlike Starfire's. The two slowly spun around, and were faced with an unpleasant sight.
A tall, very slim creature was standing right above the two. It looked pretty much like a walking tree, except that it had no leaves and was not nearly as tall. It's many roots served as legs, squirming around like tentacles. Two larger branches were used as its arms, packed with razor sharp fingers. A pair of hollowed out holes near the top of the body were alight with a small flame each, which Robin assumed to be its eyes.
Without sparing anymore time, the tree creature emitted a load roar, and swung its hand right across Robin's cheek, carving 5 shallow cuts in his skin. The Boy Wonder recoiled in pain, but secretly threw a few explosive disks at the creature that bombed the creature.
"Run!" Robin hollered as he took off down the rest of the stairs, almost jumping down.
"Robin, are you alright!" Starfire yelled as the two were sprinting through the rather dark basement, alight with only a handful of torches. A few pillars, placed in various locations, connected the ceiling and floor. The ceiling was only six feet above the ground, which aided in providing a feeling of claustrophobia.
"I'm fine! Just keep moving!" the Boy Wonder yelled back, the two continuing their random dash, unsure if the tree creature was chasing them or not. However, judging by the familiar roars heard every so often, the two Titans assumed that the creature had not given up and was still after them.
-
(Beastboy and Terra)
"Dude, how long is this staircase?" Beastboy asked impatiently as he and Terra kept climbing flights after flights of stairs. Having been assigned the northern door, which turned out to lead to the upper floors of the temple, the two had to had assumed that getting their switch would be the hardest.
"No idea," Terra simply answered, exhausted herself. Finally, after yet another bunch of stairs (much to Beastboy's complaining), the two teens apparently reached the end of the constant stairs, being faced with a door.
To this sight, the shape shifter jumped into the air and did a motion. "Finally! Now let's get this over with." Beastboy reached for the door handle, but just as he was about to touch it, the door burst open, revealing an obnoxiously large spider on the other end. It had about twenty beady red eyes staring right at a shocked Beastboy and Terra, along with a bulky, black body. Not only was it nasty as is, but it also had a long black tail extending from its back, much like an enlarged scorpion tail, complete with a deadly stinger.
Beastboy assumed a position to shield Terra from this... thing. "I say we attack it," the shape shifter commentated, "One the count of three: one, two, and..." Timing was obviously not on the Titans' side as just before Beastboy could finish the countdown, the spider leaped into the air, its stinger aimed directly at the shape shifter's heart.
"Beastboy, watch out!" Terra shouted, managing to push herself along with the shape shifter out of the way of the stinger. The spider had lodged its stinger in the ground from the force of the impact, and was temporarily disabled. The Titans saw this as a great opportunity and decided to take advantage of it.
Terra summoned a few rocks and quickly yet skillfully shaped them into sharp dagger like points. Beastboy morphed into a crocodile and stood waiting. Meanwhile, Terra aimed and launched the newly fabricated rocks at the spider, their sharp points piercing its body in several locations. The shape shifter now waged his attack, charging and literally tearing the stunned spider to bits with his deadly teeth.
"That went well," Terra said, taking a breather as Beastboy returned to his human form.
"Um, Terra?" Beasboy acquired the blonde's attention as they started walking into the new hallway.
"Hmm?"
"I wanna thank you for saving me back there," Beastboy said, a red blush creeping up his face.
"No problem, BB," Terra replied happily, hugging him for a few moments before letting go and proceeding down the hallway, Beastboy rejuvenated with life once again.
It wasn't too long until the hallway opened up into a much larger one. This hallway was about as wide as a basketball court and had a high ceiling supported by tall pillars that occupied the perimeter. A few marble statues that depicted knights stood in between the pillars, spaced about fifty feet apart. A red carpet lined the center of the hallway, stretching all the way to the other end. Four large, rectangular stone posts, each measuring seven feet in width and ten feet in height, were placed in the corners with a bright torch alight in every one of them.
The two Titans were rather amazed by the beauty of the place. "Dude, if this place wasn't overrun by wild things trying to bite my head off, I would actually wanna live here." Beastboy joked around, the two continuing down the hallway.
"Apart from that weird spider," Terra commented, "I doubt we'll see anymore mutated... things." Just as the two reached the center of the hallway, a loud rumble was heard and twenty steel bars aligned in a grid dropped down from the ceiling, blocking off the entrance from which they originally came through. The same applied for the other end of the hallway.
"You know," Beastboy said in a rush, "just when you think you've got this temple down, something always has to screw it up..." The two teens moved closer together, prepared for anything.
The statues that were sitting alongside the walls suddenly glowed green and started morphing into real beings. The torches that lighted the room now emitted a deep red color, casting a tint of crimson throughout the hallway. Out of the ten glowing statues stepped out knights in full armor. They held a large shield and sword, their shining, metallic armor colored black. The swords were eleven feet long with razor sharp edges. Shields were just about fifteen feet in length and five feet wide, protecting the knights' bodies completely. The knights' heads were covered by a full steel helmet, their faces cloaked by its shadow.
The entire assembly of knights aligned themselves in a perfectly straight row and raised the swords with their right hands. Without another moment to waste, the warriors yelled out a battle cry and started charging at the two Titans.
"Um, I think this is gonna be harder than we thought," Terra said as she and Beastboy took their own stances, ready for the attack.
-
(Cyborg and Raven)
As soon as Cyborg and Raven entered their assigned door, a pitch black hallway greeted them on the other side.
"Aw great, time to waste more battery power," Cyborg grumbled as he turned on a light from his mechanical body.
"Can't be any worse than what the others are going through," Raven countered, the two making their way down the dim corridor. Every so often a noise could be heard, undoubtedly from an inhabitant of the temple, which would cause the two teens to quicken their pace.
Just as both Titans thought that this darkness was never going to end, they were surprised to see that they reached the end of the hallway. Before them, however, stood a door with chains all over it.
"Looks like someone doesn't want us going in there," Cyborg commented, "No prob, we'll fix that in a minute." Raven gave the half robotic teen a confused look. "I'll just blast it down!" He added, seeing the dark witch's confusion.
Raven sighed, "We'll probably tear down this whole place just to flip a switch..."
Chuckling slightly at Raven's comment, Cyborg aimed his now loaded sonic cannon at the door, firing a blast that torn it down without a problem. "Told ya..." Smiling, the robotic teen proceeded in. Raven rolled her eyes and slowly made her way into the room until she heard Cyborg call out, "Yo Rae, take a look at this place!"
"What is it?" Raven asked, rushing inside to see what happened. She was, however, amazed rather than worried when she realized what Cyborg was talking about. The two teens apparently walked into some kind of huge greenhouse, except with a more natural theme. This room as like a forest inside a building. It was rectangular in shape, acquiring the size of a football field, if not bigger. Cyborg and Raven were standing on a fifty foot tall, elevated ledge from where they came in, facing the scenery before them. In the middle of the room stood a huge tree that went all the way up through the high roof. It's trunk was colored a deep brown, its bark reflecting the steady passage of time. The canopy of the tree was filled with thick, dark green leaves. Dense shrubbery and forest life filled the areas surrounding it, almost like a pool. A pair of parallel ledges went around the perimeter of the room level to the current ledge the Titans were on, providing a means of movement to the other side. Random sounds of fauna could be heard easily, and the constant buzz of insects was plentiful.
"I'm probably just imagining this, aren't I?" Cyborg questioned, trying to absorb as much as possible into his mind.
"Looks pretty real to me," Raven said, getting over the excitement, "Let's just get to the other side and finish off this temple." The dark witch started making her way across the ledge on the left side of the room with Cyborg in pursuit.
It took awhile, but they eventually reached the other side and were met with yet another locked door. "I'll take care of this," Cyborg said, stopping Raven from disposing of the door herself. The robotic teen powered up his cannon and was about to fire but was hit by something on the side of his head. "Yo, what the..." Cyborg turned around and was once again faced with danger.
It appeared that he was struck by a large, green vine. However, this vine was connected to the large tree that stood in the middle of the room. As a matter of fact, there were a ton of vines already alive and swinging randomly from the tree's canopy. In a scope of seconds, the bark of the tree twisted and turned itself, starting to form a face. Indeed, two large, circular holes that were presumably the eyes hollowed themselves out from the bark. A large gash of the bark reconstructed itself to form a twisted mouth that was apparently smiling a very wicked smile. The eyes now remodeled themselves into a pair of isosceles triangles pointing inwards. The tree, now flowing with life, turned its attention to the two astonished teens. Emitting a piercing roar, it commanded its vines to attack.
"Oh great, this can't be good..." Raven muttered, bracing herself for the incoming attack.
-
(Robin and Starfire)
After a few more explosive disks and Starbolts, the tree creature that was chasing Robin and Starfire finally decided enough was enough. Trying one last futile attempt to attack the two, the creature launched itself like a spear at the two, trying to pierce either one. However, Robin was too quick for it and threw a Birdarang with his usual excellent precision, slicing the creature in two.
"Glad that's over with," Robin said, watching the tree creature fall to the floor as two harmless pieces of wood.
"Surely there can't be anymore of these, can there?" Starfire asked.
The Boy Wonder was unsure, saying, "There's a pretty good chance that there will be more, but they can't get any worse than this. Come on, let's find that switch." Starfire was reassured and gladly followed Robin through the dark basement.
At long last, the darkness was cast away, though slightly, by a pair of unusually large torches. In between them stood yet another door, but with a different texture. Unlike all the other common wooden doors the Titans have become accustomed to, this one was of peppermint colored steel with all kinds of engravings all over its face. Robin and Starfire looked at each of for a second and shrugged, pushing the door open and proceeding inside. They were met with a small room on the other side. Lit by four torches in the four corners, visibility wouldn't be a problem here. Green carpeting filled this room, but the article most noteworthy stood in the center. It was a glass orb positioned on top of a five foot pillar made of solid gold. The orb itself was filled with misty emerald gases that swirled inside.
"Um, I guess this is the switch that we're supposed to activate," Robin said, unsure of what to do next since there was no on/off button or the sort on the orb pillar.
Starfire took a turn at examining it. "Might I propose that we simply hit the orb?" She asked as though it was common sense.
"Hitting the orb won't really..." Robin was cut off as Starfire powered up a weak Starbolt and threw it directly at the orb. Instead of shattering as expected, the orb started to glow a very bright emerald color, signaling that it was indeed activated. "Wow, how did you know?" Robin was clearly amazed.
Starfire replied, "These kinds of switches were once very common on Tamaran, but they were eventually replaced." The Boy Wonder took a second to thank Starfire by a tight hug.
"Well, no point in sticking around here anymore," was all that Robin needed to say before the two left the room. To their surprise, the remainder of the basement hallways were lit by the same color of light as the orb emitted helped along by the many miniature orbs hanging from the walls. Just as the Titans set off to return to the upper floor, a loud, yet soft rumble echoed through the basement. Robin and Starfire stopped their trek and looked around. Out of seemingly nowhere, about a thousand smaller tree-like creatures filled the floors. These creatures were just like the mad tree creature the two Titans faced when they first entered the basement, but much smaller and thinner. Another group of a thousand creatures filled the remainder of the floor behind Robin and Starfire, boxing them into a wall. The tree creatures squeaked a fairly weak battle cry and threw themselves at the two Titans.
To fend off the first wave temporarily, Robin threw a barrage of Birdarangs, slicing through each creature with force. "Star, these guys are way too weak, but there are tons of them," Robin said in a rush, "Try to get rid of groups of them instead of each individual one." Starfire understood Robin's instructions and powered up a few Starbolts, throwing them all in a cluster that upon collision whipped out a minimum of twenty of these tree creatures.
Instead of just launching themselves, the creatures now started shooting what appeared to be spiky little seeds at Robin and Starfire, backing away slightly. The seeds, though rather small, were surprisingly painful to the touch. The two Titans were caught off-guard and started to get pelted by the seeds, receiving a few small scratches from the spikes of the seeds. Robin threw a few explosive disks, though without much precision since he was already busy trying to shield himself. Starfire, on the other hand, was dealing quite well, using her Starbolts to block the seeds. Seeing that Robin was struggling, Starfire instead dropped her defenses and powered up a large cluster of energy, releasing it on the miniature tree creatures. Her efforts were successful in the sense the she managed to kill half of the remaining creatures, and frightening the rest.
Robin quickly thanked Starfire and threw a few more explosive disks from his arsenal, eliminating any tree creatures that were still alive and too paralyzed to move, making an easy target. "Phew, guess that's all of them," Robin said, taking a look around to avoid any more surprises.
"So we are victorious!" Starfire chirped.
Robin took a deep breath to relax, "We start getting back to the main room now, maybe the rest of the Titans are already done." The Boy Wonder said, starting for the exit with Starfire in pursuit.
-
(Beastboy and Terra)
The first knight to reach Beastboy and Terra was the one in the center of the row, apparently the leader. The knight brought his already raised sword down with tremendous force. The two Titans immediately split in opposite directions; Beastboy going left and Terra jumping away to the right. Upon impact, the sword caused a large crack to form in the stone on floor, showing just how powerful it was.
Now that the two teens were in separate corners, half the knights went after each. Beastboy just stood up and was already faced with another sword coming towards him, swung by a knight that stood a few inches of where he was. The shape shifter, keeping his limitations in mind, quickly morphed into a hummingbird and flew upwards. The knight that attacked him now was standing right below the shape shifter. Noticing his chance, Beastboy changed into a gorilla in midair, landing powerfully on the knight's head which under the pressure of the impact and Beastboy's new form, crumbled into a million pieces. The body, now left headless, also joined its head on the floor, destroyed in stone. "One down, four to go," Beastboy muttered to himself, preparing to fight the upcoming two.
While Beastboy was dealing with his batch of knights, Terra was taking on the five attacking her. However, these knights tried a different technique. Instead of just randomly attacking, they instead formed a circle around Terra. Out of the circle stepped one knight who would be attacking. The others would prevent the teen from escaping. Not wanting to waste any time, Terra quickly summoned a few rocks and stacked them one on top of the other in midair. Just before the knight could strike, the blonde teen commanded the rocks to drop with full force on the knight's head. The knight brought his sword up, ready to crush Terra, but the group of rocks collided right into his head and shoulders, crushing him instead. His arms dropped to the floor as the the rocks tore through his shoulders, also managing to decapitate him. Without a moment longer, the knight fell to the ground, no longer able to fight.
The shape shifter was not dealing too well with the two knights now attacking him. Beastboy was forced to morph into a rat to avoid the knights' swords and was weaving right through their blows. After a few minutes of this, fatigue was starting to take over Beastboy. After dodging yet another blow, the shape shifter got an idea. He morphed into a canary and flew upward, landing on one of the two knights' heads. The second knight lifted his sword and brought it down on the first knight's head, Beastboy flying away just before the sword made contact. His plan worked like a charm: the second knight, instead of hitting Beastboy, hit the first knight head on, tearing him in two. Unsure as to what just happened, the second knight froze in confusion, giving Beastboy just enough time to morph into an alligator and tear the paralyzed foe into pieces. With three knights gone, only two remained.
Terra was now fighting her second knight, but the battle was taking much longer than she wanted it to. This knight was apparently smarter than the other, using his shield much more often to block her attacks. For each swing of the knight's sword, Terra was forced to sacrifice one of her summoned rocks that she planned on using to attack, which made the fight last a long time. Finally deciding enough was enough, Terra dropped her defense for a moment and summoned a particularly spiky rock. She waited for the knight to raise his sword, aiming for his wrist. Soon enough, the warrior lifted his sword, ready to strike, but before he could do anything, Terra threw the spiny rock right at his exposed wrist, knocking the sword out of the knight's now damaged hand. The knight was now left defenseless for a split second as he tried to sooth his aching wrist. Terra summoned four rocks and sculpted them into daggers, throwing them right into the knight's throat from the four cardinal directions. The rocks went right through the knight's neck without a problem, causing him to collapse to the ground, apparently dead.
The last two knights were now double teaming Beastboy just like the others before them. This time, however, they seemed to have wised up. Instead of allowing Beastboy to score easy hits on them, these knights fought as a team, in the sense that their attacks were well planned out. The poor shape shifter was forced to deal with these soldiers by fighting defensively. The first knights slashed his sword at Beastboy horizontally while the other swung his sword vertically with perfect aim. The shape shifter morphed into a snake and managed to avoid getting sliced. As a counter attack, Beastboy morphed again into an alligator and swung his tail with such force that he managed to knock both knights down to the ground. Seeing this rare opportunity, Beastboy morphed into a lion and pounced on one of the knights, tearing him to bits with his strong teeth. The second knight was dazed but recovered quickly. Beastboy returned to his human form and faced off the final soldier. This knight started to swing his sword mercilessly as a final resort, knowing the shape shifter would down him soon. To finish the job, Beastboy changed into a gorilla and dodged a few swings. The knight started to tire out and Beastboy took this to his advantage. After a particularly weak slash from the knight, Beastboy charged up to the knight, avoiding any other attacks, and grabbed him by his arms, throwing him with tremendous force against the nearby wall, shattering him forever.
Terra was still fighting her last two knights when Beastboy destroyed his last. One of the knights was constantly stabbing his sword at the blonde, trying to pierce through her rib cage. Terra eventually picked up his pattern of stabbing, and quickly summoned a rock in between a stab, chucking it at the knight who failed to block it and got smacked in the head. This made the knight black out for a moment, giving Terra enough time to summon an even larger boulder and cast it down on the knight, smashing his body back to stone. This left just one knight to get rid of. Now that Beastboy was back in action, he morphed into a bull charged up behind the unsuspecting knight. Terra saw him coming and distracted the knight's attention by throwing a few stones at his head, some of which he failed to block. Much to the knight's discontent, Beastboy's horns pierced the knight from the back and sent him flying into a wall. Terra finished the job by summoning one more boulder and crushing the weakened knight with it. "Mission accomplished!" Beastboy cheered after the final knight was downed.
"That wasn't too bad," Terra said, pleased at their victory, "Anyway, where's the switch that is supposed to be here?" A rumble answered her question as the bars guarding the doors were slowly lifted up. Once they were out of the way, Terra and Beastboy proceeded through the once closed door, arriving in a small room with an orb switch that Robin and Starfire encountered before.
"Um, ok," Beastboy said, quite stumped, "I think this is the switch, but how do we activate it?"
Terra didn't have to think twice as she summoned a small rock, aiming it at the switch. Beastboy noted this and was attempting to stop her, but it was all for naught as Terra threw the rock and hit the orb head on. Beastboy looked like he was about to go insane, but to his surprise the orb lit up and green clouds filled it, just like the previous switch that Robin and Starfire activated. "How, how did you know?" The shape shifter asked, eyes fixed on the swirling orb.
Terra just shrugged, "Dunno, just followed my instinct." She laughed at Beastboy's funny expression and began walking back to the main room, the shape shifter close by.
-
(Cyborg and Raven)
The two teens jumped in opposite directions to avoid getting hit by the vines that now crashed into the ledge, causing several cracks to form. Cyborg, still not sure what his direct target was, fired his sonic cannon at the tree. The beam hit dead on, but seemed to cause no damage. Raven quickly magicked a piece of a dead tree from the forest below and threw it at one of the vines. The vine, however, seemed to have a mind of its own, independent from the tree, managing to catch the dead tree, crushing it in half.
"This is one smart tree," Cyborg commented, avoiding yet more attacks, but he failed to dodge a vine coming up from behind him and got smacked. The force of the hit sent him flying into a nearby wall. Raven, seeing this, ran over to help him up.
"Cyborg, are you ok?" The dark witch asked in a hurry, keeping an eye out for more vines. The robotic teen replied positively and thanked her, the two heading back to the fight. By now, the tree managed to create another batch of ten vines that it sent for the teenagers, bringing the total to twenty now. Cyborg and Raven wasted no time in disposing of this mess, knowing that the more time they wasted, the more vines the tree would summon.
Cyborg was already busy taking care of five mutated vines while firing his cannon at the tree. The vines surrounded him and each was attacking him, one at a time. Seeing this, Cyborg fired his cannon at the attacking vine, surprising the rest of them. The unprepared vine was wasted as the robotic teen's cannon ripped through it, rendering it harmless. To get rid of the remaining vines quickly, Cyborg powered up his cannon and spun around in a full circle, his cannon's beam slashing the vines. This got rid of all five vines, and caused the tree to pull them back, apparently in pain, sending another five vines back to Cyborg to replace the damaged ones.
Raven was having no problem destroying the vines attacking her. Even though she could not levitate because of the curse, the dark witch was managing well from throwing magicked items to defending attempted hits. She easily wiped out two vines by diverting the group's attention to a summoned log which she sent into the air. The vines, focused on the floating log, didn't see Raven summon another log in secrecy. She threw this log, which was much rougher than the floating log, at two vines, cutting them in half and again into quarters. The remaining three vines were confused as to what just happened, giving Raven enough time to throw the log she summoned previously at the weakened group, slashing all three vines into oblivion. 'Well that was easy,' Raven thought, preparing for the final group of incoming vines sent by the tree again.
Once again, Cyborg found himself enclosed in a circle of vines. This time, however, the vines all attacked as a group, which actually made it easier for Cyborg. The vines attacked in a pattern, each striking at the same time as the rest, which left them open for about a second before they could recover after the attack. Cyborg waited for them to strike, and so they did. He jumped up, avoiding a hit, and fired his cannon at random at the now temporarily disabled vines. The beam managed to hit and destroy three of them, causes the last two to go berserk trying to hit Cyborg. The robotic teen wasn't prepared and got hit hard, sending him flying to the ground. "Oh that's it..." Cyborg muttered to himself, quickly recovering. The two vines now just attacked at random, not caring about anything anymore. The robotic teen took this to his advantage, quickly moving under one of the two vines. The first vine sent itself towards the ground, hopeful to hit Cyborg, but instead hit the other vine, just as planned. The two vines were now in a state of paralysis, giving Cyborg the opportunity to fire his cannon one more time which destroyed the last two vines. "Boo-ya..." Cyborg said, pleased with his efforts.
The five vines attacking Raven were getting beat up, badly. Raven was simply dodging attacks and countering in a style that the vines found perplexing. No matter what move they tried, Raven was able to avoid it and strike back with a vengeance. She quickly disposed of two vines by magicking them directly and snapping the two in half, leaving just three vines to go before this was all over. The three vines now attacked at will, taking every opportunity to strike. This wasn't perhaps the best idea since Raven simply moved out of the way and watched the vines beat themselves up; it was actually quite amusing. After catching her breath, Raven resumed to lift a magicked log, shaped like a spear, at the vines, throwing it when they were in a group. The spear was successful, hitting all three vines though the center and destroying them. The tree pulled those vines back, and now was left just standing still.
"Um, did we win?" Raven asked, seeing the serenity had returned to the room.
Cyborg looked around, "Guess so, but now what?" He was answered as a bunch of stone behind them moved out of the way, revealing a small room with yet another orb switch. The two went inside, examining the switch first.
After trying to find a way to activate it for a few minutes, unsuccessfully, Cyborg became frustrated, "Man, what does it take to flip this switch!" He involuntarily hit the orb with his fist, which caused it to alight with green gases. "Uh, ok, guess that did it," the robotic teen said, slightly embarrassed.
Raven rolled her eyes with a sigh, "Well that's done, so let's get back to the room we all started in; I bet everyone is already waiting." And without another moment to spare, the two backtracked to the temple's lobby.
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(Temple common room)
Robin and Starfire were the first ones to return from their assigned switch. "Guess we got here early." Robin shrugged, noticing that they were the only two people in the room at this time.
"Robin, look. The platform is no longer surrounded by magic..." Starfire pointed out, looking at the now unprotected elevator. Robin rushed over and took a look.
"So maybe the others already finished after all," the Boy Wonder added. As directly on cue, Beastboy and Terra walked back into the common room from the north door. "Nice to see you are ok." Robin said towards the two, "Nice work on getting that switch activated."
"Thanks dude," Beastboy said. "Cyborg and Raven should be coming back soon I guess, might as well wait it out," the shape shifter added, noting that all but those two Titans were present in the room.
It wasn't much longer until Cyborg and Raven came out of their assigned door. "Hey y'all! Did we activate all those switches?" Cyborg asked, walking over to the rest of the group.
"Yup, the elevator is now available, nice work team!" Robin congratulated once again, the group proceeding to the platform. However, before they could board it, the room's torches dimmed and a familiar voice echoed through the room, "Thanks Titans, but you won't be breaking that barrier today..."
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Phew, took a while to type that up. :P Anyways, please review if you have some time. Stay tuned for more chapters coming (hopefully) soon.