Teen Titans: Half Life

Chapter 21 – Awaken! (part 2)

Beast Boy's voice faded from the radio with a crunch and a burst of static. Without hesitation Cyborg gave a yell of rage as he wrenched the doors right off their rails and tossed them to the side. Spanning 50 feet downward into darkness was the empty elevator shaft where, at the bottom, Beast Boy and Starfire were locked in battle with the most deadly foe any of them had ever faced, Slade. Unaided, the sounds of combat were heard echoing up the tunnel.

Beast Boy shouted a challenge, which quickly turned into a rhino's charging bellow. A crash of a heavy body forcing it's way through metal paneling shook the ground with a tremendous force that even from 50 feet below ground caused the whole warehouse to visibly shake, sending up a clouds of dust from the long dormant walls and machines as well as roaches from their holes.

Robin didn't even notice the vibrations; he had already jumped down the shaft. He plummeted, feet first, half of the distance before his hands grabbed a hold of the elevator's wire rope. The elevator top was fast approaching; the impact would no doubt kill him. Grasping the wire rope tightly with his hands and the lengths of his feet, he applied as much pressure as his muscles could allow, using his strength and the natural friction to forcefully slow his downward movement. It took him only a few seconds to reach the bottom of the shaft, his feet impacting loud and hard on the elevator cab, the palms of his gloves now black with grime.

Using his fighting staff like a lever, Robin forced open the maintenance hatch and jumped down into the inadequately lit interior. As he pushed the 'open door' button on the panel, the sounds of Raven and Cyborg landing on top reverberated like sledgehammer striking a metal trashcan. He stepped out just as Raven lowered herself down behind him.

What once was a solid metal wall had been obliterated. It looked like one of those demolition-wrecking balls had impacted the wall at high speed. The door and it's mechanism now lay bent and broken on the opposite side of the room. Ungodly sharp pieces of shrapnel had torn the sole couch to shreds and had ended the usefulness of the television set. Water leaked from the punctured hose and there were a dozens of deep cut marks scattered all over the four walls. They looked to have been most likely inflicted by Knive's sword. Yet with all the destruction it was amazing that power still remained in the overhead lamp, which continued to be the only source of illumination. It also came to Robin's attention that the room was unexpectedly cold. Not just a mild chill, more like the inside of a refrigerator, his breath danced before his as well.

But there was no one inside

Just the gentle drip, drip, dripping of water and the whine of the overhead lamp, as it slowly swayed to and fro, there was not a living soul.

"Robin," Cyborg called, "I found this outside the elevator." He lifted his hand to show the mangled remains of Beast Boy's communicator. Raven brought up her own communicator and checked it for Knives' signal. She immediately found it, and it was moving away at a fast pace; Robin and Cyborg also confirmed this. The signal was 20 feet above them and steadily raising as it moved away. When they checked for Starfire's signal, they found it to be right on top of Knives' position.

"How'd he get past us?" Cyborg was indeed confused, there was no other way visible way out of this level except for the elevator and they had not seen anyone pass.

"He's using the lifeline." Robin concluded.

"The wa…?"

"The emergency escape route, a back door in a sense. Back when this was the Titans base of operations they built the lifeline in case the warehouse ever collapsed upon them."

"It's a very old passage," Raven interrupted, "it's probably in worst shape than the building."

"Then let's get after them!" Cyborg smashed his fists together to emphasize his suggestion.

"Hold it Cyborg." Robin commanded, "That's what Slade will be expecting, so he'll have traps or soldiers waiting for us. We'd better go back the way we came, we know that it's safe."

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"That's what you think Robin," Slade almost laughed as he watched the three Teen Titans through the lens of his hidden camera.

"The fun is only starting, you have no idea what trouble you've gotten yourself and your friends into." He turned to leave, but before he did, he pressed a short sequence of buttons on a computer keypad.

"Soon Robin, I will be the least of your worries." Slade almost sounded disappointed as he spoke the words.

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At first it sounded the like low growl of an angry hound dog, but more unnatural. The growl turned into a sliding screeching groan, and it was coming from overhead.

"What is that?" Robin asked as all three of them gazed upward trying to figure out what they were hearing. It all started as a slight rumble, but within a few mere moments the entire room shook with the rhythm of a gong being struck again and again by a jackhammer. The entire warehouse was collapsing on top of them, a ton of metal and concrete was falling to pieces just a short distance above them.

"Everyone take cover!" Robin barked as the three friends ducked behind the only cover they could find, the half destroyed couch. As the warehouse collapsed above them, massive steel rods plunged earthward with tremendous force. Those that fell to the ground came to an early rest, but more than enough plummeted down the elevator shaft, easily reducing the cab to the consistency of a compacted soda can. The eruption of air from the collapsing tons of industrial strength supports and panels sent a cloud of fast traveling metal slivers at high speed into the already destroyed room.

The couch was able to stop most of the flying shrapnel, but even after things had settled down, Robin and Raven would remove no fewer than four-dozen needles from their clothing and skin. Cyborg was fortunate that his body armour was able to protect him from a similar fate.

The way out was now blocked by an extreme amount of rubble; the only choice left was the 'lifeline'. Raven walked calmly over to the wall with the ransacked computer terminal.

"Cyborg, a little light over here." Raven said while peering into the hollow where the monitor once rested.

"Right." He opened a small compartment on his chest and extracted a pen light, tossing it through the air, Robin caught it and proceeded to aid Raven's vision with it. Raven peered into the remains of the terminal looking for something specific. Despite the ravaged state of the terminal, many colored wires still remained creating a multicolored web making it very difficult to search the interior. It actually proved to be near impossible to get ones hands around the mess. Lacking time and patience, Raven got fed up with the wires, grabbed as much in her hands as she could and with one mighty tug tore the mess free from it's connections along with the sounds of ripping wires and tearing plastics.

She cast the web aside, not caring where it went, an with the recess now free of entanglement she found what she was looking for. A hidden keypad embedded into the back of the terminal reflected the yellow luminance from the flashlight. Somehow it seemed to beckon to them.

It was quite a reach, but Raven's arms proved just long enough to reach the keypad. Her finger rose to press the first digit when she realized something important.

"I've forgotten the password," she said with a frown.

"Five, twenty four, nine, twelve, five." Robin answered without hesitation.

"Exile," Raven remembered.

"Yes," Robin confirmed. So, Raven typed in the numerical spelling of 'exile' a word, which carried a lifetimes worth of meaning for her. But just like Knives, it was something her consciousness had pushed aside. The memories were too painful to remember.…………………………………………………………………………………

Streaking comets of fire decorated the late autumn sky. Some were raging fireballs spiraling out of control; others were fine lines of yellow and orange hues.

How had I been, back then?

The beauty of the sky art bewildered her, she didn't understand, couldn't have known at the time, that hundreds of people were lost with each fireball. Their starships damaged beyond the capacity to counter gravities natural force, plummeted to the planet below them.

Not even a year and a half old.

The invasion had begun, dozens of black ships descended upon the planet, troop transports, no, more like living spiders, spewed forth armies of heinous beasts that attacked any living thing they saw that was not of their own kind. Each one carried with it, tattooed onto its body, the symbol of the Cult of Trigon. Daemons and aliens, all who followed Trigon and looked upon him like a god. An army of darkness, employed when a world couldn't be conquered through subterfuge and corruption.

It was all because of me.

Lasers and flew between the two warring armies. The screams of the dead and dying filled the air like a symphony of hell. Artillery fire pummeled buildings into dust and cratered the once green country. Rivers and fountains ran red with blood as the both invaders and defenders were cut down where they stood.

But this is not my memory.

"Lady Arella!" once of the city guards called out, "It is not safe here, you must retreat to the…..

"No," the woman interrupted the guard. "He has come for my daughter. I am irrelevant to him." She cast her eyes to the ground in a moments thought before fixing them on the guard again.

"Neji," she put her hand on his shoulder, "Can I trust you with one final task?"

"Yes, Lady Arella, I will do what you command."

"Take Raven away from here. Use the Exile and flee this place. He must not have her"

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"Raven?" Robin called out, noticing the vacant expression on Raven's face.

"It's nothing." She replied back.

"It's always nothing," Cyborg mumbled under his breath.

"Did you say something?" her sensitive ears caught him.

"I said let's get going already." Cyborg said, stepping over to a hidden door that had opened to the left of the terminal.

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The lifeline was simply a long tunnel, made by using old fire escape stairways; the kind found on the backs of buildings. The path was very steep and the stairway covered in rust, so much so it made a crunching sound as they walked on it. However the tunnel had been built with size in mind. Cyborg in particular had no trouble fitting into the tall and wide passageway. But what he did have trouble with, was the smell. Rust, mold, and wet earth combined in a nearly air tight environment and brewing for years, to form an intense chemical assault on the olfactory sense.

For the second time that day Cyborg's hand snapped to his nose, as if he'd just stuck his hand on something hot.

"What is it with us and horrible smells today? This is even worst than BB after a hard days training." He said with tear filled eyes.

"He's leaving a trail for us to follow." Raven quipped her expression not changing a bit.

Upward they climbed, Robin, Raven, and Cyborg, who was in front, scanned every step and every inch of the walls, for any traces of traps. But thanks to Cyborg's scanners this was not a difficult task, though their progress was slowed considerably.

Some minutes later, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Cyborg was the first to notice, it reminded him of those movies that always portrayed heaven as a light as the end of a dark tunnel. Somewhere in his mind he thanked his luck that he was still alive. But was he?

Technically speaking he wasn't, if ever his battery should die, did he as well? This was a question that he often thought of. Was he even considered human anymore since over 80 percent of his body was now comprised of metal and circuitry keeping the organic parts of him on artificial life support? His emotions washed over him in a wave of depression and despair in such amounts, it was only matched by the time back to when Raven had pulled him inside of her after the battle with Money. In that place there was no light and no hope, just the feeling that there was no one left with which to play with. No joy anymore or had ever been.

"What am I doing?" he shook his head to clear it. This was not right. What had brought on these emotions and thoughts just then?

"Did you find something Cyborg?" Robin's voice seemed unusually loud in the narrow space.

"Huh?"

"Did you find anything? A trap maybe?" Robin asked again.

"Oh..uh, its nothing." Cyborg climbed the next step.

"It's always nothing." Raven quoted. This caught Cyborg's attention. He turned with a frown to stare at the challenger.

"En'garde" Raven gave a smirk that only Cyborg's advanced sensors could detect.

"Touché," Cyborg conceded. The challenge had been made. Robin just looked between the two, lost on what had just happened.

"What happened to the light?" Robin interrupted. Indeed the light had vanished, as if being blocked by something. Cyborg zoomed his vision up in the direction of the exit, using thermal to detect any heat signatures.

As soon as the thermal kicked in, his vision was filled with white, indicating massive amounts of heat.

"GET DOWN!" Cyborg's warning was followed up by a burst of light that filled the entire tunnel from exit to entrance. The thrum of a massive electrical discharge vibrated through their heads. Robin and Raven screamed in surprise and pain, as they fell into prone positions and now temporarily blinded by the sudden intrusion of light to their dark-adapted eyes. This was not the first time Cyborg blessed his auto tint functions, which automatically adjusted to levels of light and dark.

The massive amount of light was the result of a sweeping laser beam that had been shot down the tunnel, at an arc. Cutting a massive furrow into the tunnel wall. Smoke and a burning smell filled the tunnel now causing the two humans to choke on the acrid gases. Loose dirt and rocks started falling from the ceiling. Cyborg readied his sonic cannon to return a barrage of fire at their unknown assailant, but he also feared that the vibrations would aid in the collapse of the tunnel.

Another flash of white filled his thermal vision and this time it would be….

"Everyone to the left!" Cyborg rolled to his left, pressing his bulky body against the side as far as it could go. Another onslaught from the assailant reduced the entire right side span of the stairway to a river of molten metal, which sluggishly flowed down hill.

"That's hot stuff." He joked half-heartedly. This was bad they were now pinned down. Another sweep of the laser would surly catch them now and the molten river prevented them from dodging again. Cyborg decided to take a change, readying his sonic cannon in the appropriate direction, he waited.

Waited.

It had only been a mere 10 second delay between the first and second rounds by the sniper. Sweat poured down the human half of Cyborg's face. He hadn't heard anything from Robin or Raven since the second shot and he didn't have time to check on them. He could only hope that they had had time to get out of the way.

Four seconds remained.

3…

2…

1…

For the third time Cyborg's vision exploded in white, even now he could tell that this would be the finishing blow.

He fired!

He poured his whole strength into this one single shot. He heard the sound of the laser arc towards him, cutting a gorge into the ground in front of him, where it came to an abrupt halt.

Cybrog hadn't realized it but he had been holding his breath, now he allowed oxygen to fill his lungs, it tasted vile, but sweet at the same time. He gazed at the carnage before him. The stairway right before him and up had all been reduced to molten slag, cutting their exit off, but right now that didn't matter to Cyborg. He was still alive and that was all that mattered. Peering behind him, he noted with increased relief that the other two had also managed to survive the onslaught.

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Using Robin's freeze grenades to cool the molten metal prematurely, the two humans grabbed a hold of Cyborg's shoulders as the machine man used his sizable strength and dug his fingers into the ice, sliding along the steep slope and out of the near deathtrap.

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At the top of the tunnel, just outside the exit, lay the remains of a humanoid robot, a smoking crater in it's chest from Cyborg's weapon's fire. In it's hands it wielded an intimidating laser weapon. The weapon was both bulky and complex in it's design. Far too heavy for most humans to wield without the aid of a tripod or a vehicle mount. It's ammo supplied by a large dry cell generator. It was obvious that Slade had anticipated their retreat throught the lifeline, it was probably he who caused the warehouse to collapse for the sole reason of forcing them to come this way.

"Where do we go from here?" Raven asked when her vision had made a full recovery. To answer her question, Robin consulted his tracking device. The signal was now very weak and clear on the other side of the city. Fortunately it had come to a halt, but on the other hand, that might not be a good thing. Either way there was no time to spare.

"Cyborg,"

"All ready ahead of you Rob." Cyborg snapped his fingers just as his own fully customized car swung by and parked itself by the curb.

"Teen Titans, party of three." He smiled as the car doors automatically opened.

"Let's go save the others"