Teen Titans: Half Life
Chapter 23 – Awaken! (part 4)
Never say 'too
late'
Never say 'it's done'
Make me know for real you
are the one
The one that never
turns
Never walks away
The one that I can trust to always
stay
However much it aches
Always believe in me
As I believe in you.
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Robin did a double back flip through the air, laser fire erupted from a dozen guns, the noise was deafening, it cut through the air leaving bright inferno marks upon the tunnels cement surface. Debris ricocheted and smoke cracked into existence, but Robin was far too agile. He brought his foot down, heal first, sharply on the closest robot soldier's face. Sparks flew and circuits were permanently fused together as the soldier collapsed like a puppet cut from its strings.
"Azarath Metrion Zynthos." Raven seized her telekinetic spell upon an unfortunate soldier. Violently wrenched it from the ground; she slammed it intensely against the concrete wall, its broken arm was torn from it's body as she sent it spiraling against the other wall. The impact sent a shockwave that detonated the robots internal fuel cell. The explosion ruptured a nearby hot water pipe, Raven had to shield herself in a bubble of negative energy or be scalded to death.
"Booyah!" Cyborg shouted in victory has his hand crushed an adversary's head. There was a crack of metal and synthetic plastic as they fractured beneath Cybrog's monstrous grip, oil and coolant shot like a fountain covering the mechanical hero in rivers of black and blue fluids. Without missing a moment of action, he set his cannon upon another foe that was charging forward. One shot and other enemy's internal fluids mixed with the water as its main computer was vaporized in a flash of white light.
Still they came, they knew no fear, no despair. They would follow their master's orders to the last soldier. Robin preferred it, it made things easier he could destroy them all without the chore of having to chase them down.
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"How are you over there, still alive?" Alexis asked mildly concerned for the green changeling.
"Someone please stop pounding that hammer." Beast Boy moaned. He held his head in his hands; he acted drunk more than someone who was in pain. Even as he sat in one of the folding metal chairs, she swerved unpredictably and at dangerous angles. Several times he had fallen off his chair, and needed the help of Alexis to get him back on. When she wasn't doing that she searched through all of the storage lockers looking for, she said, a bottle of aspirin or a first aid kit, but in truth because she was looking for anything of value that she could swipe.
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Through cleverly hidden cameras, Slade patiently watched both groups of teenagers, giving each individual equal scrutiny. A most exciting battle and a humorous game of musical chairs, played out for him on a dozen monitors, while computers recorded their actions and interaction onto a hard drive for later use.
Slade made it a point to know everything about his foes as possible. He had been following their every move since the warehouse. While he studied each one of them with equal concentration, he had set the recorders to primarily follow Knives moves and conversations.
"Xavier Kage, or is it Knives now," he silently mused to himself.
"Xavier, the naïve boy who had been my first apprentice, he's still alive, but evidently suffering from amnesia," Slade had thought to himself after he had met the boy again, wandering the sewers. Slade had found this situation most ideal and had immediately taken steps to tighten the noose as it were. But now Robin and the others sought to rectify that problem for their own advantage, but Slade would move before they could accomplish this. If Xavier never remembered betraying Slade, then it was possible to bring the boy once again into the fold to serve under his rightful master, and be none the wiser. With Xavier's power, Slade could finally destroy the Teen Titans.
A curious thought crossed Slade's mind as he sat and stared like a statue. Did Xavier's father know his son was still alive? Most likely not since the old man had been condemned to rot in the psychological trauma ward ever since Raven had finished with him. The fool had abandoned his own son as a freak of nature, before realizing the child's immense potential after which, like a jealous lover, tried to reproduce the same power for himself. Slade could use this knowledge to tilt Xavier in his favor against the Titans, especially Raven.
For Slade, Raven was both a curiosity and an eyesore, for years he speculate on how a little girl, not even grown into her powers yet, had managed to steal Xavier from him. For that matter why he would chose her over him. Xavier could've had power, wealth, and if it was girls he wanted, that too. But instead choose a life on the lamb, always running, always struggling to stay one step ahead of his former master. Which nearly ended in his death, two years ago.
Slade found his eyes looking over the girl who had stolen his apprentice. Raven lifted a section of disjointed pipe in her black aura and chucked it through on of Slade's soldier robots. She was powerful indeed, thin but slightly muscular, feminine, and very goth. She was almost a shadow her former self, of the little girl who had charmed Xavier into playing house with her all those years ago.
But that would soon change, he'd have his apprentice back, and this time would take further steps to insure that Xavier never recovered his memories, and never betrayed him ever again.
Slade's arm moved with the precision of a venomous cobra as he reached over to dial in sequence of numbers on the monitor control pad. One of the monitors switched images from Raven's neutral face, to that of another female; only this one possessed no eyes in her socket-less skull.
"Jigo, I have a…deal I'd like to discuss."
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Something told her that this one was empty too. Her hand reached without hesitating to the doubt in her mind. Taking the simple lock in her hand and with deft precision picked the lock cleanly and with ease, not leaving any marks behind. The locker opened with some effort, dust poured from the now ajar locker like some ancient beast taking a great big yawn.
Cobwebs and dead spiders clogged the interior space, she also spotted a rectangular object sitting in the back of the top shelf, but she wasn't curious enough to risk getting web and spider all over her arm for whatever it was.
"Gross," she said plainly. Finished with the hunt she went to survey her findings.
The room had been abandoned for quite some time. The whole water purification facility was fully automated and apart from the occasional inspection and maintenance check up, human workers were not required to be on hand around the clock. This much Alexis had solved from her unscrupulous locker raid. All of the lockers, apart from one, were filled with signs of neglect. What she had found in the sole maintained cabinet was a clipboard of inspection dates and times and a tool case of pipe wrenches of various sizes, some duct tape, soldering tools, screws, hammers, and other things she didn't know the names for.
So she took the tool case.
It was heavy, but she was determined to get something out of this little trip. With all these tools there must be something she could use or sell for a little profit.
"What's this?"
Alexis spun in surprise, when had Beast Boy gotten behind her?
Beast Boy was still was slightly unsteady on his feet, but otherwise had made a fast and complete recovery. While Alexis had turned her back, the web-encrusted mystery item in the last locker had caught BB's interest. Quickly becoming a spider himself he retrieved the item, which happened to be an old videocassette complete with cover.
"Ah ha!" a wide grin spread across BB's face, the same time his face took on a slight flushed look. This caught Alexis' interest as she moved in to survey BB's finding. She only took a single look before, much to her own surprise, slapped the video out of his hands. The cassette contacted the floor with a muffled crack of plastic.
"Hey! What was that for?" BB protested as Alexis kicked the cassette clean to the other side of the room.
"Kid, your not old enough to be watching that."
"Who you calling kid?" BB said defensively, "I'll have you know I'm a much valued and respected superhero, not a kid."
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that, whatever helps you sleep at night."
"Don't be getting any strange ideas. Your not my guardian, so quite acting like an old fogey."
Tempers flared and voices became heated, it appeared that combat would be inevitable. But before either could throw the 'first blow' the northern door opened suddenly, filling the room with the protest of rusty hinges.
Knives and Starfire entered the room, oblivious to what had happened. BB and Alexis quickly regained their composure, acting as if nothing had transpired.
Not wanting to content with what could possibly lie ahead with extra baggage, Knives and Starfire had left through the northern door to scout the path ahead. Starfire used her powers to weld the south door shut permanently to block off any pursuit that might still be after the. Judging from the way they entered, nothing had happened. At least nothing had happened until Starfire spied a certain beastly boy.
"Beast Boy, are fully well again!" Starfire shouted in joy at seeing the young boy on his feet under his own power. She ran over and gave him a big hug.
The thing about Starfire's hugs was that they were less of a happy greeting and more of a car-crushing machine. Amidst BB's whimpering protests and the rapid popping of his joints, both Alexis and Knives wore faces of surprised shaken with horror as they vowed never to run afoul of Starfire when she was in a good mood.
Beast Boy was released from the death grip, he walked like his bones were made of jell-o, groaning like a brain dead zombie.
"How was the babysitting job?" Knives asked, feeling sorry for BB.
"You know I charge by the hour?" Alexis was dead serious.
"Hmm" Knives bent down and picked up an object he'd noticed on the floor since he walked in. If he hadn't been paying attention to the cassette he would've noticed BB and Alexis both eying him out of the corner of their eyes. But Knives read the title, with a slight frown, lowered the video and look directly at Beast Boy.
"Yours I presume."
Beast Boy nodded his head as if it really was his.
"Aren't you a little young for this? I'm going to have to confiscate this from you." A twist of the wrist and Knives concealed the item, like he was hiding one of his weapons.
"Heey, That's not fair" BB whined.
"Good thing I'm old enough to take responsibility for its safekeeping." He couldn't help but grin.
"Do not be unhappy Beast Boy, it will be safe until your old enough." Six eyes turned to stare at the alien girl. Each one had that You-don't-know-what-your-talking-about glare.
"Did I say something wrong?" Starefire asked genuinely confused.
"Just walk away." Alexis advised.
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Following the current, as far as the eye could see, was a rainbow sliding lazily across the water's surface. A natural reaction when such larges amounts of oil mixing and merging with the water. On contact it stained their clothing, saturating it with oil and where it touched skin, left a dirty, greasy feeling. Cyborg had gotten the worst of it, he looked like someone had dumped a pail of the stuff all over him.
"Well, bright side is my parts are well lubricated." He smiled thinly.
The battle had taken longer than expected. Every time they fought against Slade's robots, it became ever more a laborious task. For a few minutes they rested, catching their breath and examining themselves for any wounds.
"Raven you've been shot." Robin observed, concerned. Indeed on Raven cape, where it rested on her shoulders, there was a large tear in the fabric, exposing an island of red that nearly covered the top of her shoulder.
"It's just a burn." She reported unconcerned. The laser had just grazed her and left the equivalent of minor sunburn. Mentally she shook from the thought of if the laser had actually hit her. She didn't look forward to her skin itching and peeling tomorrow.
Robin thankful it wasn't too serious, said nothing in return, but instead re-checked the communicator's tracker. The beacon flashed and jumped around slightly on the screen. Something was starting to interfere with the signal, reflecting and scattering it. But it seemed they were no longer on the move. Robin pointed down the left side of the tunnel fork. The chase was still on.
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Occasionally through out the story: names, places, scenery, etc are inspired by some of my favorite animes, books, movies, etc (Other than Teen Titans of course). For example the story's name, Half Life, is taken from my favorite computer game of the same name. Lets see how many of these mini-references you can spot. If you want some help spotting them, check out my bio. I've updated it with an extensive list of sources where these references are most likely from. Of course these elements are copyrighted their respectful owners when they do appear in my story.
From now I'm aiming for Sunday, Monday for story updates.
One last thing I forgot to mention, Kathleen, or Chaos Tears, as she's known on , created the Original Character, Alexis. Thanks, Chaos Tears, for letting me use her.