Hurray for reviews!
Pickles – Of course I knew! Speedy had to show Jinx his eyes. The eyes are the window to the soul, after all.
Kiko – I didn't do any research, I just used what I knew off the top of my head, hence why there isn't much detail. That and I figured that people want more action and less technical mumbo.
MLH, April – Sorry for the delay, here's the next chapter. Hope you like it.
Pyro – Thank you for your effusive compliments, but really, I'm just a writer, no better and no worse than any other.
Star –You'll just have to read on and see what happens to everyone. They're not out of danger quite yet.
Inu – Thank you for thinking that my work is good enough to be dramatized, but I think my books are a little too long for a half hour episode. A movie, however…
Hotshot – Speedy is in a tight spot, we'll see how he handles it.
Forlorn – Thank you for reviewing. You must remember that I am placing the titans into situations where they have never gone in the series. Thus, there is no real precedent for how they would act. I'm not really taking them out of character, but I am attempting to divine how they would respond using their characters as best I can.
Thank you all for your kind reviews and I am dreadfully sorry for the extended weekend delay, I was away from my computer and unable to post. As always, I don't own the titans.
Chapter Ten: Crash Of The Titans
Cyborg was getting nervous. They had been in freefall for minutes now and gravity was slowly tugging harder and harder at them. The only security came from a purple tinged streak of fire to their right, which was Blackfire. "How much farther do we have to go?"
Aqualad shrugged, the view outside of Raven's protective shield was like looking at a fireplace in reverse contrast. Flames licked the sphere they were in, flames of black outlined in white. "No telling. We have to slow down enough for the atmosphere to stop ionizing around us. Considering we don't have much mass, that could take a while." He turned to Raven. "How are you holding up?"
Her pure white cape rippled with the energy she was releasing. "Never better."
It was all of fifteen more minutes before the flames began to die down as they entered the stratosphere. The titans were still high above Tamaran, nearly twenty statute miles. The radio interference had ceased with the flames and Blackfire called out to Raven. "Follow me, we'll head for the capital. It's not far, maybe another half hour or so."
Raven grunted. "I think I can make it that long. At least we're falling so I don't have to hold anything up. It's just a matter of keeping us all together."
Robin nodded as Raven tracked their protective bubble along behind the purple streak of the elder Tamaranian princess. They were almost there, but he wasn't going to take any chances until Starfire was under a doctor's care. "Good, we'll have an hour to spare."
Speedy's alarm clock was going off. He didn't want to get up. And where was Jinx? Normally she was stuck to him like glue in the morning, wanting either breakfast or something more satisfying.
Speedy shook himself awake. The klaxon of the master alarm was not his alarm clock and Titan One was entering the Tamaranian atmosphere with no engines and only five percent for forward shields. He activated the thrusters and tried to angle the ship to hit the atmosphere at a safe angle to bleed off the heat. The speedometer and altimeter on the helm began to decrease slowly while the external hull temperature began to increase rapidly.
His external view soon became clouded, first glowing red, then orange, then finally bright white as the heat and ionized gasses began to whip around the ship. The gravity was beginning to increase onboard, making him sluggish and pulling him hard into his chair. He cut the external view and pulled up a map of Tamaran. He was going to aim for the capital city, if nothing else Galfore would be there and could organize a search for the other titans.
His target set, Speedy tried to set the automatic pilot to land the ship. A white control screen and an ominous message in black greeted him: auto-pilot malfunction. He muttered to himself. "Well that would be too easy, wouldn't it?" He returned the helm to manual and was met with another ominous white message: helm control offline.
Speedy glared at the console and slammed his fists into it. The screen returned to the comforting blue indicator displays of the helm control. He smiled to himself, taunting the console before him. "That's what I thought."
Cast in black and white contrast, the capital city of the planet Tamaran was slowly coming into better focus as the descending Titans passed through the high cloud cover. Terra looked down at the comforting ground and concentrated. After a second, she opened her eyes, wide with shock. "I can't feel it. It's not there."
Beast Boy turned to look at the blonde geomancer beside him. He had only seen that look in her eyes once before, and that was around Slade. "Terra, what's wrong? What can't you feel?"
"The earth, the ground, I can't feel it. I can't feel any of it. I don't have any powers here."
Aqualad turned his head towards the blonde. "You're not the only one. I can't feel anything from the Tamaranian oceans. Maybe our powers just work on earth." He shrugged. "Or maybe we just need to be closer."
Beast Boy took Terra into his arms and hugging her tightly. "Don't worry, I'm not much better off than you guys, either. I'm pretty much useless until we get back to earth. Last time I was here I could hardly change into anything at all."
She leaned against the green changing, slowly calming down in his embrace. "Does it scare you?"
"A little. But remember, we're the same people whether we have our powers or not."
A chorus of suit voices interrupted them, starting with the first person who had suited up and alerting each person in turn. "Bumblebee, suit oxygen low. Terra, suit oxygen low." Within a matter of seconds, all of the titans heard a similar warning. The only difference came from the smallest pair of suits. "Menos, el oxígeno del juicio es bajo. Reemplace el bote de oxígeno inmediatamente."
Aqualad looked down at the rapidly approaching surface. "Don't worry, a few more thousand feet and we'll be able to breathe. It'll be like being at altitude, the air will be thin but we'll be able to ditch the suits. Hopefully."
As fast as the ionized gasses had surrounded Titan One, Speedy was pleased to find that they dispersed. He had a clear view of the curvature of the planet and near the terminator was a sprawling urban area that his charts told him was his target. A chime from near the environmental station indicated that a transmission was coming through. With one hand on the stick, he opened communication.
A window opened on the viewscreen showing a very large, very military looking Tamaranian. "Attention unknown ship, divert your course or be fired upon. You have ten seconds to comply."
Speedy sighed. "Tamaranian authorities, this is Speedy of the Titan One. We bear on board the princesses of the Tamaranian royal family. Please consult with your grand ruler quickly to verify and get me an approach vector so I don't sit this thing down where you don't want it."
There was a brief silence, and then the military man was pushed aside. A booming, familiar voice and an equally familiar, large man filled the screen. "Ahh, yes, you are one of Koriand'r's friends. How is she? And did you say something about Komand'r?"
Speedy adjusted his course to keep him pointed towards the rapidly approaching city. His speed was slowing down and with no engines, he had no way at all to speed up if he fell short. "Starfire isn't good, sir. We had a bit of an issue with the cryogenic system and she's out and about. That was about twenty hours ago, so she's only got about an hour left. They abandoned ship to head to the surface on their own so I could get rid of your Gordanian problem. Blackfire intercepted us and has probably caught the fire fever, too. She helped us out with the Gordanians, too. She's a good kid. How's that vector coming?"
"We were wondering why the Gordanians were breaking formation around the planet. Good work, Tamaran owes you a debt of gratitude. If what you say about Komand'r is true, there might be some sort of reprieve involved. I'll have to talk to her and Koriand'r first." He consulted a screen off to his side. "We're picking up two objects dropping directly over the city."
Speedy smiled. "Yes, that would probably be them. Now where's that vector?"
Galfore stepped aside and a thin Tamaranian with glasses and a lab coat stepped forward. The new Tamaranian spoke with a nasal voice. "You'll need to come to bearing kali'y karri'ya for entry into the city's airspace."
Speedy mulled over the fact that some things in the universe appeared to be constant. "You know, I think I'll just eyeball it."
The grand capital of the planet Tamaran was a very old city, graced with architecture from the many different stages of Tamaranian growth and reflecting the heritage and culture of the people perfectly. In the center of the city stood the heart of the royal government. The royal palace was a huge and graceful building crafted in pink Tamaranian marble.
The palace faced out towards a huge natural area, two miles long and a mile wide, which was the heart and soul of the city. The part closest to the palace was leveled out and grassy and was often used during official government functions as a drill field for troop parades to display the Tamaranian military might. The rest of the area was used for a far less impressive but no less important. The area served as a park where the residents of the city could gather and rest during their easy days.
Today was such a day. News had just begun to trickle in that the Gordanian blockade had been mysteriously broken up in orbit and everyone seemed to be taking that as an excuse for a day off. Chalkor looked up from behind the counter of the small pudding shop where he worked. It was summer and he was working to put himself through medical school. This particular pudding shop happened to be at the southern end of the great park and next to the Zeriand'r Balch'yc, or Greyfire Hospital, the most prestigious hospital in all of Tamaran. In addition to earning money, Chalkor was also making valuable connections.
Normally when he looked up from behind his counter, he saw the bright pinks and whites of the Tamaranian sky over the glorious blues of the trees. Today, something was marring that view. He was not a military man by any stretch of the imagination, but it looked like some sort of ship, coming in very low. He wasn't the only one to notice it, others had turned to watch this strange sight coming in low over their city.
Raven continued to manage the titan's descent as they neared ground. They had removed their helmets a few minutes ago and the air was thin, but refreshing. Her best guess placed them at about ten thousand feet and falling steadily. Blackfire was tracking along beside them when she suddenly did a double take to her right. "Hey guys, isn't that your ship?"
Jinx looked over to the Tamaranian with tearstains still fresh down her pale face. Her pink, catlike eyes scanned the terrain below through the black energy of the bubble. Sure enough, there below them was the familiar outline of Titan One. The ship was moving fast and approaching a very large area of forested land in the center of the city. She choked a sob as she fumbled around for her headset in her helmet. "Speedy? Speedy, answer me."
The radio crackled a bit, one minute turning into two. Fresh tears began to fall down the witch's face. Finally, the crackling turned into something more substantial. "Jinx, love, I'm a little busy. Can you give me just a second?"
Speedy was traveling at almost half the speed of sound over the city. He looked at the altimeter, he was about fifty meters off the ground and over a very large, blue looking forest. Ahead of him, he could see another mile and a half worth of forest and plain before the towers of the city picked up again. He smiled and looked down at the console, tapping one of the controls. "Well, let's see if we can get a nice parking spot close to the door."
An unwelcome white screen greeted him, instead: landing gear malfunction. He glared at the console and dropped the ship lower, clipping the tops of the blue trees and breaking into the sweeping wide plain of the drill field. He felt the tail of the ship hit the ground and cause the nose of the ship to slam into the soft dirt. His speed meant that he wouldn't be stopping anytime soon, all he could do was hold on tight and pray he didn't hit a building on his way out.
Chalkor heard the strange ship hit, then a loud roaring and crunching sound. It didn't stop, nor was there an explosion. As he continued to watch the park, he could see scores of his countrymen taking flight, escaping from the path of the oncoming ship. For a moment, the young Tamaranian was unsure whether he should stay or flee.
His hesitation cost him, for in the next moment, when he had decided to flee, the towering bulk of the ship passed from the protection of the blue forest and started to slowly, inexorably make it's way across the street. It had slowed to a crawl after passing through a mile of Tamaranian forest and came to a stop right in front of the pudding shop not twenty paces away.
Chalkor heard a muffled explosion and a crash. The door on the side of the ship had been blown off and a head capped with bright red hair was peering out the door onto the street. The ship's occupant hopped from the ship onto the street and staggered wildly about for a moment before walking slowly towards the shop.
The redhead walked up to the counter and leaned heavily against it. He considered the sign above the Tamaranian. Speedy naturally couldn't read Tamaranian but he knew from the stuff in the display case and his knowledge of Starfire's cuisine that this establishment served pudding. He cleared his throat and looked at the young Tamaranian.
"Yes, do you have any pudding of where the heck am I?"
Raven landed next to the smoldering hulk of Titan One and broke her concentration. The black bubble around the titans dropped and a totally exhausted Raven collapsed backwards into the waiting arms of Aqualad. Jinx ran into the pudding shop and her screams, a mix of joy and anger directed at her love, could be heard from one end of the block to the other.
Cyborg simply dropped to his knees and sobbed. "My baby! He killed my baby! Aww, man!" Bumblebee dropped to her knees beside him and put his head on her shoulder. It would be a long day for her.
Blackfire floated down next to the titans. She looked flushed and tired. Her first steps back on her home planet were slow and staggering. Mas hopped on top of Menos and they rushed over to her. The topmost twin placed his hand on Blackfire's forehead and gasped. "Usted tiene una fiebre. Esto es muy malo."
The dark haired Tamaranian opened her mouth as if to say something but only ended up collapsing into the outstretched arms of Mas y Menos. They lowered her slowly to the ground and kneeled at either side of her, a look of worry on both of their faces.
Robin was looking around frantically. Blackfire was down and Starfire now had less than forty minutes to live. He called out to the crowd. "Is there a doctor here?" Twenty hands shot up. Robin's eyes grew wide. "Oh, well then."