Teen Titans: Half-Life
Chapter 17: Dealing With It (part 2)
Understanding is a three-edged sword:
Your side, their side, and the truth.
Kosh
Five minutes, it had taken them, five whole minutes to reach their destination. They were really out of practice. This is what Robin said to himself as dropped from Starfire's grip and landed on a rectangular metal cargo container the size of a mac truck trailer, surrounded on all sides by many more containers of the same size, in stacks of 2 to 3 high, as far as the eye could see. This was the Jump City harbor, a hub for not only the export and import of goods, but also for the large oil tankers. As such, an oil tanker currently floated silently, and safely secured in the harbor docks, surrounded by massive 80-foot tall cranes designed to lift the cargo containers onto tankers and other similar merchant vessels.
Robin rubbed his arms for warmth; the ocean breeze brought with it a chilling wind that cut through body heat. Which is how they located their enemy in the first place. For no apparent reason, the wind carried a wave of heat, temporarily warming them. At about the same time, the glow of a fierce light lit up the entire deck of the tanker. Wasting no time, the five Titans flew and leaped their way over the many stacks of miscellaneous containers. The wind picked up strength then, and seemed to be trying to push them away from their destination.
Regardless, they landed upon the elongated metallic deck of the tanker, at about where they saw the light emerge. To their left was the rear of the vessel where the bridge and radio tower resided. Down the right, lead to the front of the ship, but apart from that, the deck was completely unobstructed, with no place to hide.
So where had the light emerged from?
The answer came soon afterward. Beast Boy with his sharp sense of smell, quickly picked up a burning carbon smell. The smell came from a human sized hole melted in the deck of the ship. The, still, hot metal gave off no smell itself, but rather all the impurities, dirt, and sea salt, on the deck that had been razed, did. Without saying anything Robin jumped in first.
Inside it was pitch black, beyond what little starlight actually made it through the diminutive hole. The first thing Robin noticed was just how warm it was inside. Tiny beads of sweat were starting to form; he wiped his brow just as Starfire lowered herself into the narrow corridor. Raven and Beast Boy followed in short order. The corridor itself had two pressure doors at either end. Robin inspected one, while Raven critiqued the other. Both had electronic key locks and showed no signs of tampering or forced entry.
Where had the intruder gone? The only other possibility was the control tower.
Without warning a grill from an air vent fell noisily to the ground, startling everyone. The vent itself was small, barely big enough for a house cat to fit in, yet as they watched, a man, who must've towered over Cyborg by a clear foot, folded out of the impossibly small space.
The man looked emaciated, on the brink of death, long thin limbs attached to a body on the verge of imploding. Sunken gray eyes set into a skull with paper like skin, and dressed in the most basic white t-shirt and jean set. He smiled at them, a lipless grin, and with a single effortless leap, jumped out of the hole in the ceiling. Cyborg was the closest and followed the man, jumping out without too much trouble; the sides of his shoulders scrapped the metal briefly upon his exit. Cyborg's night vision enhanced eye caught sight of the thin man just as a jet of napalm erupted from the man's mouth like some dragon from a fantasy novel.
Luckily, Cyborg was able to dodge since the man hadn't been aiming for him in the first place, but for the hole in the deck. Cyborg heard BB give a yelp of surprise as the red jet ignited the metal to white hot temperatures. The near molten metal sagged under gravity's influence and while it didn't seal up completely, the hole shrunk smaller than the other Titans could fit through.
Bringing his sonic cannon to bear, Cyborg called out to the man, "Yo, matchstick! Ya'll need to lay off the spicy chicken wings." Cyborg fired a warning shot, which the man easily dodged.
"Light," the lanky man said in a low voice sounding as equally thin as he was. Twin spheres of white light shot with surprising speed at Cyborg who instinctively moved to dodge them. To his dismay they each exploded with immense brilliance and lit the surrounding area like a sun. Even though Cyborg's eyes had filtering lenses that automatically adjusted to bright like, the suddenness and pure intensity of the attack left him seeing nothing but white.
"Ah! My eyes!" Cyborg cried out in shock as his hands automatically covered his face to protect himself. The man, however, was faster and stronger then he appeared, a sharp kick to Cyborg's stomach winded him, then a swift strike on the back, followed by a roundhouse kick that sent Cyborg flying, stern wise.
Metal screamed noisily as an even bigger hole was punched through the deck in a large explosion of green energy. Starfire, followed by Robin, flew straight up through the new passage and landed neatly besides Cyborg. BB, having flown out earlier, as a small bird, suddenly made his human presence known, behind the enemy along with Raven, who had simply used her shadow walk technique, and passed through the deck from below.
"Starfire," Robin ordered, "watch over Cyborg while we take care of this one." Nodding without a word, Starfire took to the sky and flew towards the stern and Cyborg's landing spot.
Robin, Raven, and Beast Boy surrounded their prey in a triangle formation.
"Dude, your about to get a royal beat down," BB put very bluntly.
"Who are you!" demanded Robin, extending his bo staff, and preparing to attack.
"I'm Flare," spoke the lipless mouth, "by order of my master, all of you are to die here."
"Doesn't look like that's going to be happening." Raven held both hands in front of her, palms open, ready to strike with her powers the second she willed it.
"Oh, but I think it will, I came prepared" Flare smirked as he put his hand in his pocket. There was a click, and a rapid beeping sound as he extracted the object from his pocket. The Titans tensed, if it was a weapon they would have to take him down before he could use it. They prepared to rush attack from three different sides.
"Heh," Flare smirk, holding the silver cylinder in his hand, "Right now we rest on top of 8000 tons of crude oil." That got the Titans attention, "This ship now carries enough Semtex on its key points to blow it clear out of the water, as soon as my hand lets go of this trigger.
Both Robin and BB no longer advanced upon Flare, unsure about how valid is threat was.
"What's the point, we could all simply escape by flying away." Raven was quick to find a flaw in his plan.
"But your metal friend over there isn't going anywhere. I suck a super two way magnet to his back, he's permanently affixed to this ship until the battery runs dry. Even if you escape Raven, one of you will die and the ignited oil will poison this entire harbor."
"Starfire get Cyborg out of here!" Robin shouted to Starfire.
"I am unable to do so. Something holds Cyborg to the ship," she replied helplessly, while trying, with all her strength, to lift Cyborg up, who was rubbing his eyes furiously.
"You can still make it to safety if you leave now!" Flare's hand opened and the silver cylinder fell. Even before the Titans had time to realize what was going on, A dozen explosions rocked the ship. Pillars of fire erupted all over the deck, spewing deadly fireballs of burning oil. The Titans were thrown to the now scorching hot deck by the violent tremors that assaulted the ship. With no time left, Robin, Raven, and BB ran or stumbled their way to where Cyborg remained affixed. Their progress was made all the more treacherous by the pools of hot burning oil spreading over the deck surface.
With Starfire using her star bolts, Raven her telekinetics, Robin his birdarang, and BB his now literal gorilla strength; they cut, blasted, and tore the steel plating to which Cybrog was unable to remove him self. Completing a circle around his body, they all lifted him up in unison.
But as they did so, another seires of ship tremors listed the ship to the port side. Under Cyborg's weight and the sudden change in slope they all fell or were thrown off the ship towards the icy water below.
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Moments later, all five Titans emerged from the ice-cold sea water, mostly unharmed. The ordeal followed by the polar bear swim, left them all gasping for air intensely rubbing their bodies, and gathering close together, for much needed warmth to their numb bodies. From this distance, they could see, the smoking ruin of the tanker's deck. If the oil had indeed ignited, the whole ship should've gone up in a massive fireball. But due to the fact that the ship was still afloat, and that they were all still alive, that had not happened.
So what had happened? What about all the burning oil on the deck, and all the explosion?
They did not speak to each other as they made the seemingly long trek back home.
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"Are you sure this is ok?" As he watched the defeated Titans leave the harbor, Flare stood upon the Tanker deck, having not moved an inch since the fireworks began. A snap of his finger and suddenly the ship was returned to its original state. Even Flare changed. Instead of the impossibly tall and thin creature from before, was now replaced with a young man standing somewhere between five and six feet. His eyes shown with the intensity of fire, even his hair flowed like lava with its deep red color with yellow highlights.
Besides Flare, there was another woman who emerged from the shadows. Dressed in a Kimono that bore prints of every type of eye, human animal, or otherwise, upon it. Her hair hung passed her waist, shining ebony against skin as pale and clean as newly bleached, white shirts. However her most distinguishing feature was where her eyes should've been, including eyelids. Instead the skin remained unbroken as if she had never been born with them in the first place.
"All we had to do was deliver the message, we didn't need to go through all this trouble just to scare them."
"I want to play with them some more." A female voice spoke over the headset flare wore.
"I could've done this better on my own." The eye-less female responded. "My illusions are unbreakable."
"But they're only illusions, Jigo. They can't actually harm them, that's why I'm needed." Flare proved his point by igniting his hand on fire and waved it threateningly in Jigo's face. But she just stood there, her expression unreadable.
"Enough you two," the voice demanded obedience. "The Master has his reasons, our job it to make sure they get the message. You did give them the message?"
"Yes, the green eyed female has it." Jigo replied, sounding almost bored with the question. "She picked it up right after they fell into the water."
"Good, now all we have to do it wait." Flare finished.
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Back at Titans Tower, Starfire nervously held onto the silver cylinder. Just after they'd falled into the water, she had spotted it in front of her. She wouldn't have bothered trying to take it, but to her amazement the name 'Starfire' was written on it, in her native language right next to the Tamaran Royal family crest. Tamaran was the name of her home world, why would it be in the possession of that evil man. The Cylinder was not a remote detonator as Flare had claimed it to be, it was in fact a message tube, a very special message tube. Not only possessing Tamaran royal family crest, the only way to open it was to use a special pass code that only royal family members knew.
Right now she debated on whether or not she wanted to open it. She felt the urge to leave for Tamaran right away. Something terrible could be happening, she thought to herself. But the message could wait a little while; she already had many other questions that needed answering, that she had put off too long.
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Starfire had been so engrossed with trying to figure out exactly what she was going to say, she hadn't realized her feet had already lead her to her destination, Raven's room. Raising her hand to knock, she froze. Maybe this wasn't the best time to ask, it could wait a little bit more couldn't it. After all they had just survived a most stressful ordeal. Why not wait until they had all rested up a bit more.
But Starfire realized if she didn't ask now, she might never have the chance again. If things were bad on Tamaran she might have to leave, and she didn't want to leave behind unfinished work. No, this was the time; she would get the answers she sought now, less she drown in uncertainty.
One, Two, Three, firm knocks on Raven's chamber door, then she waited. She didn't wait long, before Raven slowly opened her room door, just enough to peek a single eye out and see who it was who disturbed her. Beyond Raven's door was darkness, Raven had either been sleeping or meditating.
"Friend Raven, I must speak with you on matters most dire." Starfire said, her hands clutched together as if to plead.
"I need to be alone." Was all Raven said before she started closing the door again.
"But it is most urgent." But Raven didn't reply. For a brief moment Starfire despaired and considered giving up, but that quickly turned to a burning anger in the pit of her stomach. What right did Raven have to turning her away in such a heartless fashion. Grabbing the edge of the door, before it shut completely, Starfire's eyes started glowing an intense green as she applied far more than enough strength the rip the door from Raven's grasp and force it completely open, exposing a most surprised Raven to the hallway light's interrogating glow.
Raven stumbled back a few steps, Starfire was clearly pissed and appeared ready to unleash all of her fury into Raven. The berserker like fury didn't last long, however.
"I...I am sorry Raven." Starfire, who a few moments ago looked ready to tear Raven apart, apologized as her eyes lost their glow and her body momentarily slumped from over exertion. A few silent moments were exchanged between the two before Starfire opened up with the question that had been bothering her the most, "We are n...not the first Teen Titans are we?"
"No," Raven replied plainly. Starfire wasn't surprised, this much she had figured out on her own.
"What happened to them?"
"They died," any expression Raven had was hidden behind her cloak hood. "Both Robin and I," Raven continued, her voice straining more as she continued "lost good friends and family when they were all murdered. No one can replace them! So we both agreed never to speak a word of it to anyone else." Her fists clenched in anger.
"Why?"
"The previous team, preferred stealth and ambiguity so hide themselves from their enemies. So it was easy for us to make the public believe this team and the previous team was one and the same. If it had become known, that all 6 of the Titans had been killed, the people sponsoring us would have lost faith and we wouldn't be so well off today, with a home of our own. A small price to pay for a little bait and switch lie."
"Buy why could you not tell us, your friends about it?"
"The less people who knew the truth the better."
"But you are telling me now?"
"Cause you already suspect the truth. I know you saw many things while inside my mind."
"I'm sorry." Starfire lowered her head in shame.
"It makes no difference, ever since he came along things have changed." Raven walked over to her bookcase, which was stuffed full of thick hardbound books. Pulling out a book entitled, 'The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe,'
"Who," Starfire lifted her head back up, "you mean healer Knives."
"No I mean this person." Opening the book up to the poem entitled, 'The Raven' she pulled out a photograph that had been hidden in a pocket made by pasting two pages together, on three sides, and sticking the photo between them. She handed the photo to Starfire.
Starfire critiqued the photo. Right off she identified Raven or the young, 'Dove' Raven from the orphanage. Standing next to her nearly a full foot taller, was a boy that seemed very familiar. Starfire concentrated harder on the boy, he was younger, and was wearing different clothes, but there was no mistaking it. The boy in the picture was a younger Knives. It was obvious to Starfire now,
"Raven, Knives is Xavier." That was a statement, not a question. "Why didn't you say anything before?"
"Because Knives looks just like Xavier the day before he died. But apart from that, they are almost completely different people." Somewhere outside a window shattered, "Xavier was nearly 3 years older than me and even if he was Xavier, where did learn all that medical knowledge and in just two years," books violently hurled themselves off the bookcase, "and he never used swords and knives before? But most importantly, where has he been in the past 2 years, ever since the accident?" Finally it ended with Raven's bed shattered in two. Then it was over.
Raven stood there, eyes downcast and with shoulders shaking.
"Raven..." The two embraced as only friends could, Starfire could tell that Raven was fighting hard not to let sadness control her.
"I did not know these memories were so painful for you." Starfire regretted forcing herself in on Raven the way she did. She hadn't stopped to consider Raven's feeling in the matter. The two friends broke apart; Starfire wiped a few tears from her eyes.
"But you are right Starfire." Raven said as she pulled her hood down showing that she had indeed been crying. Rivers of tears still gently flowed from her eyes, "It's time I told everyone the truth, or as much of it as I know. About Xavier, my father, and the original Titans."
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Next chapter will be a major plot point, so look forward to it.