Teen Titans: Half-Life
Chapter 15: A Teen Titan's Goodbye
The Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination, more commonly known as, 'The H.I.V.E.,' an underworld organization, seeking world control though political manipulation and the exercise of vital powers. The name HIVE, having just recently surfaced, they show far too much strength and influence to be an infant organization. Apart from that, not much else is known, except that they operate directly out of Jump City.
The Teen Titans have had a couple run-ins with HIVE operatives. Most noteworthy are Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth. Jinx, with her power of Hex curses, Gizmo, with his superior inventions, and Mammoth, with his immense strength, have caused no end of trouble in Jump City. These three even kicked the Titans out of their own Tower once, before being defeated. Yet no matter how many times the Titans defeat them, even when they manage to send them to prison, they keep coming back.
Indeed, they had returned.
Shortly after the Titans returned from within Raven's Mind. They discovered their Tower had suffered some serious internal damage, concurrently several items had been stolen; most obvious was the HIVE battery recovered from Money. It was not hard to guess as to who had stolen it, but confirmation was needed.
A quick review of the Tower's security camera data, by Cyborg, revealed the culprits in all their glory. Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth entered the tower and quickly made their way to the Security Storage room. In fact, they almost seemed to know the quickest route there. The rest was history; despite the extensive security systems Robin had in place, they stole the battery, as well as a few other items that caught their fancy, before making their escape. But not before leaving behind a few 'gifts,' not only in the form of several explosives chucked into the Main room, but also a few traps. Starfire had been unfortunate as to discover a few of these herself, much to Beast Boys amusement.
Henceforth, Beast Boy would always refer to it as the Tar and Feather trick.
Yet even as the HIVE lackeys ransacked the place, they feared the imminent return of the Titans. They came in, did their business, left; and so it was by a stroke of luck that they hadn't discovered Raven's unconscious self in the Medical room.
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Two weeks passed.
During this time Robin, Starfire, Cyborg and Beast Boy would search the city by day to find any trace of the HIVE base or of it's members, and in the evening they would repair the damage to their home. They hadn't allowed Raven to come along, as she was still recovering from her injuries. Even after quick stay at St. Geromes Hospital, she still was still hadn't regained her full strength. So she spent most of her days in the Tower meditating and training her powers.
As for Knives, true to his word, he left the Tower. But only after Raven returned from the hospital. Everyone was hesitant to see him go, seeing as he was being hunted by Trigon and Id, both very powerful and dangerous enemies. But still Knives insisted on leaving and Robin had given his word to let him go.
So after packing his belongings, a little food and water, he went to meet Starfire on the roof. The idea being she would give him a quick ride into the city. Instead he found all the others, including Raven, waiting for him there.
"What are you all doing here?" Knives asked.
"We came to say goodbye." Robin answered.
"We also have something for ya dude." Beast boy said with a grin on his face and clearly hiding something behind his back. Walking towards Knives, Robin pulled a palm-sized object from his belt and handed it to Knives.
"What's this" Knives asked as he looked at the gift. It was a small circle shaped radio with a large T set into the middle.
"We'd like to welcome you to as an official Teen Titan!" Robin clasped Knives on the shoulder.
"Welcome to the Team!" Cyborg gave a congratulatory pat on the pack to Knives who nearly fell onto his face from the force.
"This is a most wondrous day we must partake in the human tradition of party and gift giving." Starfire joyously added.
"Here," Beast Boy pulled out the hidden object, "we all decided to give this to you." The object was a katana, sheathed in an ordinate scabbard; black in color but with a yellow serpent wrapped around it, it mouth wide open at the top as if it was eating the sword. "We pulled it from storage, used to belong to a freak calling himself Sergeant Kabuki man."
"I hope the sword is better than his name." Knives smiled as he accepted the gift. Pulling the sword, with the grace of an expert, he inspected the blade. It was smooth and unblemished; its last owner obviously had taken good care of it.
"Thank you very much." Knives pulled the kitchen knife from his shirt. "I guess you can have this one back."
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As it turned out Knives didn't end up leaving until the next day. The 'party' Starfire had mentioned turned out to be an all pizza pig-out fest. With at least a dozen pizzas, and a dozen 2-liter sodas. They ate, drank, and played the night away. Swapping stories of past glory, fights, victories, and adventures; even some jokes. Beast Boy in particular wasted no time in acquainting Knives with his sword's previous owner. Turns out Kabuki man had been an obsessed anime fan, who upon accidentally acquiring, a previously unknown, magical sword over the internet, had proceeded in exacting his revenge upon all his enemies.
"Man, you should've seen me in action! Beast Boy's finest hour. He was all up in our faces with that sword, but I managed to take him one on one and wrestle the sword from him, and take him down like a rock." Beast Boy acted the scene before them, jumping and diving to the beat of his voice. Knives figured that BB was exaggerating his role, but Cyborg confirmed BB's story.
"Seems his fighting skill was as pathetic as his name." Knives quipped, much to BB's frustration.
"Hey, without my special skills, Khaki man would've beaten everyone."
"It's Kabuki" Cyborg corrected.
"Whatever dude. Point is you need me on this team. Otherwise you can't do anything."
"The only thing we can't do is eat the tofu, I guess that's were your special skills come in." Raven remarked sarcastically.
Raven, however, was the only one who didn't join in on the festivities. Eating and drinking little, she spent most of the night sitting quietly to the side, watching and giving out the occasional sarcastic remark; usually in response to one of BB's over-the-top stories or goofy behavior.
For the most part, she seemed to be studying Knives, in much the same way an artists studies his work for flaws and imperfections. Occasionally Knives caught her stare, but when he turned to confront her about it, she would avert her eyes and pretend to be doing something else, like reading. It didn't last long, in the end, Raven was still fairly weak from her ordeal and ended up going to bed far earlier than the others, much to Knives' relief.
"Is it just me or is Raven acting weirder than normal?" he asked.
"Huh?" BB seemed confused, "What are you talking about, she's always acting odd around new people."
"But does she usually stare at people like that?"
"I think we're the ones usually staring at her freaky side nature. Maybe she likes you?" BB, with a sly grin, nudged Knives playfully.
Knives shook with a sudden chill, "If her eyes were lasers, I'd be a sizzling brown spot on the floor. I'm normally all for cute girls, but Raven would be the death of me."
But for Knives, BB wasn't going to leave it be. Soon after BB started singing "Knives and Raven sitting in a tree-ee. K...I...S...S...I...N...G...," that Knives had to empty a 2-liter soda bottle over BB's head to get him to shut up.
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Starfire had noticed Raven's odd behavior, and again the questions came to the surface. Questions about Xavier, the orphanage, the nuclear detonation, the origin of the Titans, Trigon, and Id; Starfire wanted to lock Raven in this room until all of these questions had been answered to her satisfaction. She hated how Raven always kept all her secrets to herself, never able to fully open herself to anyone, not even to her close friends.
Starfire looked over towards the boys; Robin, Cyborg, BB, and Knives. The four of them filled the room with the sounds of battle as they proceeded to smack the stuffing out of each other in one of Beast Boy's favorite fighting game. It seemed they had all forgotten the trials of the past few days, and the uncertainty of the future, and were living only for this moment. Starfire wished she could put these questions and doubts aside, if only for the time being, to be able to fully enjoy the night, as the boys did. But even as she cheered Beast Boy's fighter to victory, she was not able to let go of her fear.
Waking well past noon the following day, they skipped lunch; thanks to the insane amount of food they'd managed to stuff away last night. A couple of them were even unable to leave the bathroom for most of the day.
Exchanging goodbyes and handshakes, Starfire flew Knives to the park by the riverbank.
"Where do you plan on going now?" Starfire asked, genuinely curious.
"I'm not sure," he replied, "I have many questions that need to be answered."
"Then we are the same."
"Hmm?"
"I too have many questions that need answers. About many things."
"It's about Id, and Trigon right?"
"Yes, but much more than that."
"I wish I could help you, but I have my own problems now."
"You have already done much for us. Please find us if you ever need our help."
"I promise I'll come back once I find what I'm looking for."
"That is good to hear."
"Take care of yourself, Starfire"
"And you as well, friend Knives."
With a final farewell, the two went their separate ways.
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Things soon settled back down to normal. With Raven now fully recovered, the Teen Titans were at full strength again. The HIVE was still out there somewhere and Trigon wasn't going to give up on Raven and Knives so easily.
"We'll meet again. It's the way it has to be, Eugene." Raven said to herself as she watched Knives' minute form disappear amongst the city buildings.