Tides of Change: Chapter Four
Clash of the magic users.
Ten reviews! I'm into the double digits! Yey! In this chapter, we get to see how badly I mutilate the Teen Titans! I am trying to spell check, most of the mistakes appear after I up date. Gah! How all you talented writers manage to do this I will never know.
L1701E, you may not be able to review, but you have given me many a idea for future Fics and love triangles! Thank you! On the subject of Kim's strength AnT, I'm not gonna make Miss Possible to strong. I'm thinking that if she really tried she could lift a mini-van up with both hands. She'd still loose to Cyborg if the arm wrestled though. Thanks for the compliment on Terra's death, she's one of my fav's so I tried to do her justice. Zita is from Kim Possibles neck of the woods, she appeared in the little aired episode 'Grudge Match' and again as one of the main characters in 'Vir-tu-Ron'
One Master Stoppable seemed to like her. So you can
just guess where my sick little mind is taking this!
GAHH! I did it again! Sorry folks, now the sceens are seperated.
Cyborg grinned as he pushed some buttons. On the huge plasma screen in front of him a small car pixelated suddenly vibrated and jumped ahead of it's competitor.
"And a little trip into hyper space and-" he jumped up, "BOO-YA!" He said, "I win again!"
"Yeah yeah." Beast Boy muttered, tossing the controller in his hands away, "For the fifth time today, Whoopee!"
"Your just sore because you stink at this." Cyborg grinned at his best buddy. Beast Boy and him where probably the two that knew each other best, right next to Robin. The emerald changeling stuck his tongue out at the half machine giant next to him.
"And you're just sore because you had to do the initiation again!" Beast boy shot back. Due to the fact that he had 'left' the titans to pose as a H.I.V.E student, the other Titans, as a joke, had made the former athlete do the initiation again. It had involved a Tutu, a wig, a unicycle and several rubber chickens.
"And your just sore because-" Cyborg froze.
"Dude, you alright?" Beast Boy hopped over to him.
Warning, Intruder Detected. Warning, Intruder Detected.
The red words flashed over and over again in front of Cyborgs mechanical eye. He also had a splitting headache.
"Yeow!" He yelped, putting a hand to his head.
"What's wrong?" Beast Boy asked.
"I've got a-owowowowowow! Really bad, ooohhhh, head ache." He managed to say.
"Maybe Ravens got something for it." Beast Boy suggested, "You know she's got all the homeopathic stuff, it might help."
"Beast boy, I'm half robot, remember?" Cyborg winced as another wave of pain washed over him.
"So? Your half human to! Come on." Beast boy grabbed him and led him to Ravens door.
Chains where across it. Several curses in foreign languages where written on it. Torches in the shape of human skulls where burning on either side of the door. There was a sign saying, "Truss passers will be shot."
It was the first time either of them had heard cardboard talk.
"She's gotten a lot more protective of her room, hasn't she?" Beast boy said. Undaunted, he knocked on the door.
A shaft of the door slid open, revealing Ravens dark purplish blue eyes.
"What?" She asked testily, her slightly gravely voice full of impatience.
"Cyborg here has a head ache." Beast Boy shoved the reluctant teen in front of him, "We were wondering if you had any herbs or gunky stuff that might help?"
Raven sighed and opened the door. Well actually she just made a hole in it and walked though it. The portal sealed up behind her, snapping the tail end of her cloak out of it. She looked at their faces. Beast Boy and Cyborg had both seen her do this before, but not without good reason. Beast boy guessed that after he and Cyborg had found that freaky old mirror in her room, she didn't want them inside her head again. Cyborg thought it was that both Jynx and a bunch of robots had both trashed her room. Actually it was just because she enjoyed making the other inhabitants of the tower go 'WAH!'.
(Hey, she may have to repress her emotions, but that doesn't mean she didn't want to have fun. Happy Raven would have her head.)
"What, do you think that I was going to go to all that work to unchain it?" She asked, "It's much easier to rip a hole in Space."
"O-Kay." Cyborg said.
She rolled her eyes. Humans.
"Follow me." she said and glided down the hall.
They went to the kitchen. Raven floated up and pulled some bottles from a high cabinet.
"Here." She said, handing him a bottle with a cluster of tiny words printed on the label, "This should stop it."
Cyborg doubtfully popped a couple of the pills into his mouth. The pills where small and slimy and slithered down his through. He waited a few minutes in uncomfortable silence. Nothing happened.
"Nada." He said.
Ravens brow wrinkled.
"That's weird." She said, picking up the bottle and reading it, "This stuff should have stopped it almost immediately."
"Could you try something else?" Cyborg said, "This is pretty bad."
Raven sighed and pulled up her hood.
"I'll try healing it. Be warned though, when I heal someone I can read their thoughts. If you don't want me to do this, just say so."
Cyborg shrugged.
"I don't have anything to hide." he said, "Just don't tell anyone what you see alright?"
She offered him a rare smile.
"Deal." She placed her pale hand on his forehead and concentrated.
Raven wondered aimlessly though the halls and memory banks of Cyborgs mind.
Inconsequential fantasies drifted by, their collective voices rising and falling.
She stopped at one spot. Sensory organs. Curious, she drifted in.
A few second later she flew out again. No one should be able to feel their hand on someone else's forehead.
Her soul self flapped its wings and glided on wards. Nothing, nothing, zip, retchet, nothing...
She saw a figure up ahead.
Probably just another fantasy. She thought. Nothing to get worked up about.
But that didn't stop her from investigating. She flew towards it.
It was a cat.
A pink cat.
Raven shrieked and dove at it, talons out stretched.
This was Cyborgs mind, Jynx wasn't allowed.
Mammoth chewed loudly on a piece of pizza. Across from him, Gizmo happily munched on his hard earned Sardine slice.
It had taken a lot of bartering, but he had finally convinced Mammoth to let him have his sardine pizza, provided he did a few favors for the giant.
One, he had to clean his room and help him keep it clean for a month. No problem. Gizmo could just whip up a couple dozen robots to help him with that. Or reprogram some old ones. Either way, done.
Two, he had to tutor Mammoth. Since he and Jynx practically did this anyway, easy-peasy.
Three, he had to buy, or steal, Mammoths next months worth of comics. That one would be hard. Not.
Four, he had to help Mammoth set up an E-mail account so he could talk to his sister and adopted Mother in Markovia. Piece of cake.
But five, Gizmo had hesitated at five. He would have to teach Mammoth how to play Piano. Turns out it had always been a secret dream of his to be a Piano Playing Psychiatrist. Go figure.
Gizmo chewed his pizza thoughtfully.
The first problem was that they didn't have one. No matter, just rob some music hall and pretend it's for some plan to build a cheese gun or something. (only problem with that, the thought, was that it was just stupid.) Problem two was teaching him. Since he couldn't play the Piano himself, he couldn't program a robot to do it for him. Since Jynx was from Asia, or from around there, he couldn't ask her to help him. She always claimed the only real instrument up there was a kind of drum, or a guitar or something. Ha hadn't really been paying attention. He supposed he could ask one of the teachers, but they had this embarrassing habit of calling him by his birth name. He could always surf the net for info, but he doubted there was a lesson plan on how to teach giants Piano.
There was nothing for it. He'd have to rob a music store.
Yep. It was a daring, and frankly, rather stupid, plan, but he'd have to go though with it. After all, half of the pizza was already in his stomach. He couldn't back out now.
He would run in, grab some piano lessons, and possibly a piano, and run out.
While he was at it he'd better pick up something for Jynx, maybe it would help her take her mind off of Cyborg.
"So what are we gonna do about Jynx?" Mammoth asked, "She can't go on like this. It's not healthy for us or her."
"I propose an elaborate plan to humiliate Cyborg involving chickens, burritos, a Chihuahua, some slime, and a heck of a lot of silly string." Gizmo said between mouthfuls.
"What, old number 1020? Yes, it has charm, but it lacks subtly." Mammoth chewed thoughtfully, "You came up with that one didn't you?"
"Oh, and who came up with 678 I may ask?" Gizmo shot back, "That grunk chewing plan is so loud that our ears rang for weeks!"
"Hey, you come up with 894! I thought I was going need new underwear!"
"I didn't come up with that one! That was Jynx!"
"Oh yeah. Hey, didn't she come up with the one with the seals too?"
Gizmo shook his head.
"I think that was your sister. Isn't that the same one as the Banana cream pies?"
"And the tap shoes? Yeah."
"Tap shoes? I thought it was poodles."
"That's 213."
"Yeah your right." He waved his hand, "Anyway, back to the matter at hand. What are we going to do about-"
"Going to do about what?"
The two looked up. Jynx was standing there, nursing a black eye and an Ice pack on her arm.
"Jynx? What happened?"
She gingerly sat down opposite to them.
"Got into a fight in the, um, halls." She said, giving them a lopsided grin, "You should see the other girl."
They nodded, not wanting ask what dimension Jinx had sent her to.
She reached for a slice of Pizza.
"Mm, Hawaiian." She said, "My favorite." She took a bite, "So what where you talking about?"
"We were just gonna avenge ourselves on a certain rat." Mammoth said.
"So you did study last night!" Jynx exclaimed, "Good job! Well, what ever you two loons are going to do, just remember Mirage wanted to be part of the next prank we did."
"She did?" Gizmo's ears pricked up, "Then I have the perfect plan."
Edger Dumble didn't deserve the kind of treatment he regularly got. He was good with kids, enjoyed music, had never raised his voice at anyone and was terminally good-natured. But despite all of this, he had a third rate job at a little used gas station, and was frequently yelled at for no good reason by his boss. One morning, as he stood pumping gas into a old car, he finally had enough.
Okay God, he thought, I know your listening. I have no idea what to do with my life, but I am not gonna spend it here if you don't want me to. So what I'm gonna do is ask for a sign. If, in the next four minutes, something extraordinary happens, I'm quiting this dump and moving to the rain forest. If nothing does, then I guess you want me here.
The owner of the car came out of the store, tipped Edger and drove off. The next two minutes where quiet. Then, on the horizon, a small dot appeared. In another minute it was practically on top of the gas station, the dry dust getting stirred up as it managed to land right next to the pump.
The door opened and three boys of around the same age came tumbling out. One seemed a little younger than the other two, his wild brown hair mussed up. He gave Edger a grin and wave and, not knowing what else to do, Edger waved back. One was black with dark brown hair cut close to his head. He spotted Edger and came over, the other boy following him.
"Hey dude, where's the bathroom?" He asked in a semi-polite way. Dumbfounded, Edger pointed out back.
"Danke." The one with the longer, almost blue hair dispersed in a puff of... smoke?
"Kurt! Scott said no powers!" The African-American ran around back to the rest stop.
A couple of seconds later three more people emerged from the jet. Two boys and a girl with long red hair. One of the boys had wavy brown hair and was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans. Sunglasses covered his eyes. He seemed to be shouting something at another occupant of the airship. The other boy, who was also wearing glasses, Edger noticed, stepped down in front of the girl and reached up to help her. The girl giggled and jumped down without his help.
The sunglass wearing one walked up to Edger.
"Ya got any magazines?" he asked bluntly.
Edger seemed to be getting the hang of this by now. "In the store, got a whole rack full." he said nonchalantly.
"T'anks." Gambit trotted into the store to buy some reading material. "Ooo! Dey got 'People!'"
Cyclops walked over to Edger, "Hey." he picked up the gas pump, "Only be a minute." he looked at the girl, "Jean?"
She put one hand to her temple and suddenly the guy was six feet off the ground. Edger gawked for the full time that he was up there, until the tank was full and he came back down again.
Scott put the pump back and dug into his pants pocket, "How much do we owe you?" he asked.
"Uh... twenty dollars." Edger said. Scott produced the money and gave it to the man. Edger clutched the bills, the money was good and that was all that mattered.
"KURT! JESSE! JAMIE! Time to go!"
The three boys reappeared in a second puff of smoke and the one who spoke German ran back onto the jet on all fours, like a cat.
The youngest one ran after him, tripped, and then four younger ones ran after him. Jesse ran up the ramp without any incident, although a light bulb from the overhead canopy chose to explode at the same time.
Gambit re-emerged from the store, three magazines under his arm and a liter of soda in his hand. A small gust of wind knocked his glasses askew as he passed the stunned pump attendant, and before he hastily fixed them back in place Edger was sure he had seen red eyes.
The other two got in the jet, although the girls feet weren't touching the ground, and it took off.
Edger stood there for a long, long time, staring after the machine. The door to the shop banged open and Frank, his boss, stormed out of it.
"Just what do you think your doing?" He yelled, "Stand around on your own time you worthless-"
He stopped when he saw the look the Edger gave him.
"Frank," he said, calmness and serenity radiating from his voice, "Bite me."
It was dark. Stars glistened chillingly in the black sky over head. It was an unusually quiet. Not even mobs would dare piece this almost oppressive night. The Nightclubs hadn't opened, the Bars had closed early. Even the round the clock pizza parlor had broken its oath and shut down. No one wanted to be out on a night like this.
Something in the mind told you not to.
A person forgets, but the town remembers.
One figure did move on the street. Darting from shadow to shadow with a quickness that would leave anyone staring down from windows rub their eyes and convince themselves that the light and hour where playing tricks on them.
It stopped in an alley, panting slightly from the journey.
"Okay, now can you answer my questions?"
Tornado leaned against a slightly slimy wall and nodded.
"Where are we, who are you, why am I dressed like this, where did this ax come from, and most importantly, how am I alive!"
"And the first shall be last." Tornado mumbled, "Whelp, get down, you can walk from now on."
Twister jumped down from the elder Coyotes back, tail wagging with excitement.
"Wow Tornado, you can really run fast!" He said.
"It comes from a life time of trying to keep up with your charge." He said, "Nothing moves faster than a teenage girl when there's a sale at the mall."
"Could you answer me?" Terra said irritably.
Tornado sighed, blowing a lock of fur out of his eyes.
"What's the last thing you remember?" He asked.
"Trying to stop that volcano." She said, "Did it work?"
"Yes." He said, sitting down and keeping one eye on the entrance to the alley, "But unfortunately, you couldn't stop it before it encased you in lava. It was a miracle you survived at all. If I hadn't found you, you'd probably be there until your friends found that cure."
Terra stared at him.
"They tried to save me?" She asked softly, "After all I did to them they still tried to save me?"
He nodded.
"Wow." That was all she could say. She had hurt them, she had kicked them when they where down, very nearly cost them their lives and home, and they still tried to save her. She stared into space for a second, "Okay, next question. Why do I look like this?"
"Ah. Here comes the tricky part." He looked her strait in the eyes, "Terra Lydia Markov, you are Sailor Terren."
She looked at him like he had grown a new head.
"What?"
"Your a Sailor Scout!" He looked at her. "Don't you know what that means?"
She continued to stare at him, although now she edged away slightly.
"You don't do you? Gods, what do they teach in schools today?" He shook his head, "Well, it's going to take a while to explain. Just get comfortable."
She made her self a makeshift seat out of a short rock pillar. Twister jumped up beside her.
"It started over a thousand years ago, when the universe was at peace."
Terra listened intently as Tornado began to tell a story. Her story, and countless others...
"This time was called the Silver Millennium, all the Planets in all the Galaxies where existing in peace with each other. Well, almost all of them. But we'll get to that later.
Now, each Planet had a kingdom. The Venus Kingdom, the Mercury Kingdom, you get the point. The ruler of the Moon Kingdom, Queen Serenity, had raised her daughter to follow in her footsteps. Most of the time the Princess was looking out the window, she had fallen in love with a young man.
This guy also happened to be the Prince of Earth, Prince Endymion.
At the time, everyone thought that the peace would last forever, that the universe would go into infinity as a united kingdom. Boy, did they have another thought coming! On one of the planets, Earth as it turned out, war was breaking out across the surface. Good people where suddenly becoming violent and greedy. The cause of this was one woman, Queen Beryl.
Queen Beryl had once been a third rate sorceress, a nameless no one scrounging for power in dark places no one else would go. She did this for years, until she found it. It came under the name of Metalia. Metalia promised Queen Beryl infinite power, in return for one little tiny favor.
Take the moon kingdom.
Oppression was heavy in the air. The other planets rulers began to prepare to defend them selves. To lighten the mood, the Queen Serenity had decided to throw a ball in honor of the Princess finally being ready to take the Throne. Every Ruler of every Planet and Race would come to wish her well and offer his or her allegiances. Avalon, Jupiter, Iceria, Cyclopsia, Mars, Siktlrye, and," here he paused, "Terren."
Terra snapped out of her trance, "What?"
"You were there." Tornado repeated.
"But, but you said that was over a thousand years ago!" She protested, "There's no way I could be here now!"
"Yes there is. I'm getting to it." Tornado said calmly.
"Here's where it starts getting good." Twister snuggled against Terra's side, and she absentmindedly started to pet him.
Word was that an attack against the Moon Kingdom would soon be staged. The Queen, against her better judgment, decided to continue with the plans for the party. When the day arrived, guests arrived from all over. The Guards at the Palace where on high alert, and due to the utter turmoil on Earth, the guards where on the lookout for anyone from there.
Endymion had managed at long last to convince the Queen Serenity that he was no spy and had finally been allowed in the palace. He arrived in the ballroom just in time to steal a dance from the Princess. As they dance, he told her that things where going to change from now on. He wasn't going to see her as much anymore that he might never get to see her again.
Just then, Beryl attacked.
The Princess couldn't believe this was happening. Endymion had to leave to fight, but before her did, Serenity gave him her most prized possession, her Star Locket. They swore that they would always be in each other's hearts before they kissed each other good-bye. She was rushed away by her Guards as the Sailor Scouts tried to fight Queen Beryl off. Fire Soul, Supreme Thunder, Crescent Beam, Bubble Spray, all of their attacks where tried, but none succeeded. With a wave of her hand, Queen Beryl slaughtered them. The Queen turned her attention to the Princess. Endymion arrived just in time to save her. Queen Beryl, being the sick, twisted shrew she was, offered to let him join her and rule by her side. As her King. Endymion repulsed, as anyone with a brain would be, refused. The Queen was furious. She dragged him off the balcony and towards her.
Endymion had screamed at Serenity to run, and she did. Right to him. Queen Serenity rushed forward to rescue them, but it was to late.
Everyone was dead. Their bodies floating aimlessly away from her kingdom. They where gone. Forever.
But she wasn't.
She refused to go down with out a fight, to let them get away with killing her Daughter and the brave solders who gave their live to defend her. She did the only thing left. She used a powerful item to trap the Nega-force and save her Daughter and the Sailors. She sent them to a brighter destiny on earth, some thousand years in the future. Even if it meant killing herself.
As the Queen lay dieing, her Advisers had wondered why she was so sad. The Queen explained that it was because none of them would remember anything of the Moon Kingdom. And worst of all, she would never get to see her Daughter again. She knew it was the only way for any of them to live on, but it didn't take the hurt away. She had enough power left to send the soldiers guardians to the future. Along with everything Serenity and her court would need if the Nega-verse were ever to break free.
She knew that all of them, including you, would be reborn on earth with no memory of the Moon Kingdom. She had hoped you would live out peaceful lives here, But if the Evil Forces should try to rise again and repeat that night, they would awaken and know what to do. The last of her energy spent, the Queen died, hoping that someday, maybe, she and her Daughter would meet again.
A little bit longer than I had intended. Oh well. Yes, the Sailor Moon series is now officially in my verse, but I doubt I'll be bringing the characters into this little romp. Next, two more characters that I will be using, and the plot thickens!
Terra: Theres a plot?
Supposedly. See ya then!