DISCLAIMER: I don't own Teen Titans. If I did, this would be on TV and not here.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This doesn't take place in the same storyline as my "Forced Base" and "Fractured Heart" stories, so forget those when you're reading this. Also, this takes place after the fourth season, so anything that happens in the show after that isn't applicable to this. Also, about Sanza/Red X: When he's wearing the mask, he's Red X. When he's not, he's Sanza. Simple as that.
O-O-O
There was no turning back now for Red X, who leaned back against the wall of the elevator as it took him up to the circular room where he knew Sorel would be waiting.
Whether or not his family was unharmed, he was going to fight Sorel... going to end their business relationship once and for all. He'd warned Sorel about attacking Maddy and his mother a second time... and Sorel had not heeded that warning.
"Slade won't like me attacking one of his men..." thought Red X as the elevator stopped at the top of the shaft. "But I don't give a damn."
The door opened, and Red X stepped into the room, walking slowly toward the other side of the circle. There, Sorel was standing, an eager smile on his face. He had no idea that Red X had radically changed his mission plan.
"So, Sanza... did you bring me the mask like I asked you to?" asked Sorel, but Red X simply stopped in the center of the room, staring deeply into Sorel's face.
"I told you not to attack my family," replied Red X, his fists beginning to clench. "You didn't listen... your men broke into their house... my house-"
"Your mother and sister are fine," said Sorel. "I called off my robots a short time ago... they should be returning here as we speak."
A deep feeling of relief came over Red X, as he learned for the first time that his family was safe and unharmed. Part of him now regretted not retrieving Robin's mask, knowing that his mother and Maddy's lives might once again be endangered for deviating from the mission.
But nevertheless, Sorel had violated his part of the agreement... Maddy and Sanza's mother had been attacked, and thus, harmed... the same way Red X knew he'd harmed Starfire when he kidnapped her.
X knew what he had to do... he had to keep his promise, and he had to fight Sorel.
"Our agreement was that if I do what you say, my family wouldn't be touched," said Red X, "and you violated that agreement."
"Your family is fine, Sanza..." Sorel replied, now becoming annoyed that X hadn't yet presented him with the mask. "I didn't-"
"Bullshit," replied Red X, pointing his palm at Sorel's face. The X on his palm began to glow, and immediately, Sorel took a defensive stance.
"Think of what you're doing, Sanza!" shouted Sorel, a golden belt around his waist beginning to glow. Suddenly, his entire body was surrounded by a spherical field of white energy, illuminated by the light of the room. "You attack me and you endanger your family!"
"You just said you called back your robots, right?" asked Red X. "And if you didn't, you're a liar... all the more reason to destroy you!"
An X blasted forth from Red X's palm, slamming into the glowing white barrier around Sorel and instantly disintegrating. A chuckle escaped Sorel's lips, and he began moving slowly toward Red X, his feet floating several inches off the ground. Red X took a step back, but kept his palms pointed in Sorel's direction, confident he'd find a way past his opponent's energy field.
"I see you'll just have to be taught obedience the hard way..." said Sorel, slowly lifting up his hands and causing the floor beneath Red X to begin slowly rising upward, briefly causing X to lose his balance. "If you thought beating the Titans was hard, wait until you've fought me for a while! Then you'll know the meaning of true strength!"
A beam of white light suddenly shot up from the ground under Red X, burning his skin and causing him to fall to one knee. With his skin tingling from the effects of the beam, Red X lifted his hands and shot out several more Xs at Sorel, all of which hit the white light barrier and quickly burned to ashes.
"Damn..." thought Red X, watching as Sorel continued to float toward him. "I gotta find some way to get my attacks through that shield..."
The ground beneath Red X began to rise up again, but this time he was prepared for an underground assault, and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid another white beam. He looked around the room and saw Sorel and his spherical shield floating just to his right, and decided to try a more direct approach to getting through Sorel's defenses. He extended his wrist blades and leapt forward, slicing at the shield of light around Sorel's body. As soon as his blades came in contact with the light, however, Red X knew he'd made a huge mistake. The contact sent a wave of electricity shooting through Red X's entire body, powerful enough to blast him into the air, where he was a sitting duck for a hard punch to the face by Sorel. The punch slammed Red X to the ground, and he landed hard enough on his back to knock the wind clear out of him.
As he lay gasping on the ground, Sorel floated over him, and a small mass of glowing white energy suddenly appeared in his right hand.
"As you can see, attacking me is foolish, not to mention impossible," said Sorel, though instead of looking into Sorel's face, Red X was looking even further up... all the way to the ceiling. An idea quickly formed in his head. "I'll give you one chance to surrender, before-"
An X shot up from Red X's palm, slamming into the ceiling and exploding in a flash of red light. The blast sent rubble plummeting downward from the ceiling into the top of Sorel's shield. The rubble disintegrated on contact with the white energy, and Red X made his move.
"Let's see if you can be in two places at once," said Red X, leaping up and kicking Sorel hard in the knee. Sure enough, the shield wasn't powerful enough to block both the rubble and Red X's kick at the same time, and the kick connected, disorienting Sorel and causing his shield to disappear. Red X lunged forward, shooting another exploding X, this time into Sorel's chest. The force of the blast knocked Sorel all the way back into the wall, and before he could recover from that attack, Red X fired several more Xs that transformed into goo and completely encased Sorel's body, pinning him to the wall in a mass of sticky red slime. "Hmm... guess you can't."
O-O-O
While Red X was fighting Sorel, the Titans were following the tracker signal that Robin had planted on Red X. The display on the front of Robin's T-Cycle showed a bright, blinking dot at Red X's exact location.
"He's somewhere on the west side of the city," said Robin, accelerating his T-Cycle around a corner while allowing Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, and Cyborg plenty of time to catch up. "After all this time trying to figure out the reasons why you've been committing all these crimes recently... now we're going to find you, Red X, and your new employer... and you're both going down."
Though Robin now knew that X wasn't working alone, his theory for X's motives suggested a crime partnership far more than a situation where Red X was being coerced into his crimes.
Starfire and Raven, on the other hand, had a different theory in mind... they both believed that Red X wasn't making his decision to attack the Titans willingly, especially considering the boldness of his recent attacks.
Beast Boy and Cyborg were both on the fence about who to believe, but they, like the other Titans, agreed that the best way to solve the Red X problem was to find him and take him down.
They'd found him... now all that remained was the taking down part.
Cyborg was the first to notice the enormous central tower of the Tekita Refinery, rising up in the distance. He took a glance out of the T-Car's window, toward the display on the front of Robin's T-Cycle. The blinking red dot appeared to be originating from the direction of the tower.
"Hey Robin, I think your man X is at the refinery," said Cyborg, causing Starfire to take a glance at the display herself.
"Cyborg is right, the Red X is at the refinery..."
"Head for that tower!" Robin shouted, accelerating his T-Cycle down the street in the direction of the refinery. The other Titans followed, hoping Robin's lead would provide them with the answers that they'd been seeking for so long.
O-O-O
From high up in his chambers in the refinery tower, Slade watched the security monitor that displayed a live feed of Sorel and Red X's fight. Rather than being angry at his reluctant apprentice's betrayal of Sorel, Slade actually seemed interested in the fight that had developed, and he watched eagerly as the battle progressed.
He'd expected Red X to attack Sorel the entire time. Sorel was merely a buffer... a checkpoint between Red X and Slade. Slade knew that giving Sorel the power to attack Sanza's family would result in him using that power, which, sooner or later, would force Red X to strike back.
"Keep this up, and you'll pass your final test with flying colors, my apprentice..." thought Slade, suddenly noticing something else on one of his monitors... the Teen Titans had just entered the refinery's parking lot, an unexpected wrinkle in Slade's plans. His finger moved toward a large red button under his desk. "The Titans... it's a small wonder they didn't show up sooner. But I can't have them interfering... not this time."
O-O-O
Red X knew that Sorel was trapped, but he also knew that a bit of red goo wouldn't stop him for very long. Almost immediately, he began bombarding the goo with shuriken Xs, hoping to cause some damage to Sorel while he was trapped in his current predicament.
As soon as the first barrage of shurikens hit the goo, it exploded, and Sorel burst out, the red slime burning from his flesh as he threw his arms outward. His white hair suddenly turned black, and the four braids in his hair began standing up on end, as if attracted by some distant static force. A dark, purplish aura appeared around his body, replacing the white sphere from earlier.
"Whatever Sorel just did, I don't like it..." thought Red X, who could feel the energy emerging from Sorel's body as the jewel in the center of his belt shined solid black.
"No more games," shouted Sorel, his fist punching forward at Red X, sending out a dark purple fireball. Red X immediately responded, firing an X that collided with the fireball and nullified them both. Sorel lunged forward, kicking Red X in the chest and tossing him backward, but allowing him to maintain his footing as he landed a few yards away.
"This isn't a game," replied Red X, running toward Sorel with both of his wrist blades extended. "This is about my family!"
But instead of trying to slash Sorel with the blades, Red X leapt up into the air, flipping over Sorel and landing behind his back. When Sorel turned around, Red X rushed forward and charged Sorel's energy shield, slicing with both blades toward his face.
"Fool, don't you realize that with my shield up, your attack is point-"
Sorel could suddenly feel an intense explosion just behind his back, its force completely blocked by his dark energy shield. Because of the explosion, Red X was able to charge right up to Sorel and slice his face with both blades, making large gashes on both of his cheeks. Right after the slashes, Red X began to feel his hands stinging with an intense burning sensation. He pulled back his arms and saw smoke rising from both of his gloves, covering hands that were now flaring up with pain.
The thief began shaking his arms, trying to rid himself of the painful burns, or at least to alleviate their effects somewhat. As he did, he received a powerful kick to the side of the head, slamming his body into the door of the nearest glass elevator. He flew through the glass and impacted against the wall at the back of the small chamber, his shoulder slamming into its cold, metallic surface.
"Forgot to tell you about that," said Sorel, "but as you probably felt, my Nega Shield contains enough energy to burn the flesh of anyone who tries to penetrate it, unlike my normal shield which you've probably grown accustomed to."
"Nega Shield?" thought Red X, his hands still slightly singed from the effects of the dark energy. He slowly stood up in the shattered elevator, ignoring the pain in his severely bruised right shoulder. "What does he think this is... Sailor Moon or something?"
Red X could see the spherical purple shield, still radiating forth from Sorel's body, glowing in tune with the jewel in the belt around Sorel's waist.
"I've gotta try and get to that jewel somehow... that has to be what's powering the shield, and maybe Sorel himself!" thought Red X. Before he could step out of the elevator, however, the entire small chamber filled with a powerful electrical charge, instantly causing X to collapse to the ground, screaming and writhing in pain. "What... is... this?"
"It's called electricity, but I guess you don't pay enough attention in school to know something like that," taunted Sorel, his extended palm apparently providing the source for the electrical blast that was currently filling the entire elevator chamber that Red X was in. "You know, someone like you should be honored that a great man like Slade saw fit to take you on as his apprentice! He sees more potential in you than he does in me, which is hard to believe, since I'm currently the one who's about to burn your pathetic body to a crisp!"
Red X struggled to stand, but his entire body felt paralyzed from the effect of the shock, and it felt like every inch of his skin was ready to burn off. He immediately recalled the powerful shock Red Raven had administered to him inside Raven's mirror... that was enormously painful, but this shock had to be seriously close... and Sorel was giving no sign that he would stop.
"He's trying... to kill me..." thought Red X, gritting his teeth under the mask to try and keep himself from screaming. "I didn't think Slade would let him, but... if Sorel kills me, Slade can just make Sorel his apprentice or something... I have to fight to survive!"
But with every second, the shock inside the elevator seemed to intensify two-fold... and Red X knew that he was beginning to run out of time.
O-O-O
The Titans entered the parking lot, and Robin and Cyborg stopped briefly to park their vehicles in spaces toward the back of the lot. As soon as Robin got off his T-Cycle, and Cyborg exited the T-Car, the Titans were moving again, rushing toward the entrance to the refinery.
Starfire, floating alongside Raven and above the rest of the group, could see the determined look in Robin's eyes as he ran across the dark, asphalt parking lot. She couldn't help but feel a bit of nervousness as she and the others neared the entrance... whoever was controlling Red X could certainly be far more powerful and dangerous than he was, and Starfire knew that the Titans would have to be ready for anything.
But she also felt relief, knowing that once the reason for X's recent actions had been exposed, Robin could finally relax again... could finally stop worrying.
"I can't wait to get in there and kick some bad guy butt..." said Beast Boy, an excited smile on his face as the Titans neared the building. "I've been wanting a rematch with X ever since our fight at the Xantha Building..."
"We're not just here to fight Red X," reminded Raven. "We're here to find out who's been giving him or-"
Raven didn't get to finish her sentence, because before the Titans could get up to the front door of the refinery, she was blasted in the side by an orange energy beam, directed at her from the roof. She hit the asphalt and looked up toward the roof... where two dozens Sladebots were standing.
"Titans, go!" shouted Robin, extending his bo staff as the Sladebots began leaping from the rooftop. The realization that he and his friends were dueling Sladebots hadn't quite come to his mind... he was too quickly overcome by the rush of battle.
The Sladebots were each carrying handheld plasma guns, which shot beams of concentrated energy when they were fired. Raven had already felt the effects of a beam, and she quickly responded with a dark energy blast of her own, which slammed into the chest of one of the Sladebots leaping straight for her. The blast was powerful enough to make a hole in the Sladebot's chest, as well as knock it back into a couple of its counterparts. The three Sladebots landed in a heap on the ground, but the two that Raven hadn't blasted quickly threw off their destroyed friend and jumped back into the fray.
A squad of six Sladebots charged Beast Boy, who transformed into an elephant and quickly grabbed two of the robots with his large trunk. As he began swinging the two bots around, the other four Sladebots opened fire on Beast Boy, whose tough skin easily reflected the blasts from their powerful plasma guns. Another Sladebot with a large steel chain in his hand leapt onto Beast Boy's back and wrapped the chain tightly across elephant Beast Boy's neck. Beast Boy bucked wildly to throw off the Sladebot, but the chain around Beast Boy's neck kept him anchored mostly to the ground.
"Don't worry, Beast Boy, I'm comin'!" shouted Cyborg, pointing his arm cannon at a Sladebot that was trying to chase him down. The blast from Cyborg's cannon destroyed the pursuer, but two more Sladebots standing in front of Cyborg had a plan to stop him. They stretched out their fists, and when Cyborg turned his head around to look forward again, his face slammed into the fists, and he was quickly brought down to the ground.
Beast Boy, who was starting to lose his breath from the force of the chain around his neck, used his strength to propel his enormous front legs up into the air, throwing off the Sladebot on his back and bringing his legs down on two of the bots underneath, smashing them to pieces. He then swung his trunk into the two Sladebots on the ground, tossing two other robots down on top of them before he lifted up his legs again and squashed all four robots in the pile. He detransformed and began doing a celebratory dance, pumping his fists up and down.
"Beast Boy, look behind you!" shouted Raven, charging up an energy blast in her hands to stop two Sladebots who were creeping up behind Beast Boy, their guns pointed right at his back. Beast Boy turned around just as Raven fired her blast, which slammed into the two Sladebots and disintegrated them both.
"Yeah, I saw your cool energy blast," Beast Boy replied, thinking Raven had warned him just so he could see her destroy a couple of Sladebots. With a sigh, Raven flew over Beast Boy's head toward another part of the battle.
Meanwhile, Starfire using her flight skills to lift Robin just over the heads of the Sladebots below, giving him clear shots with his bo staff so that he could swing it down and whack off the robots' heads.
"We make a wonderful team, do we not?" asked Starfire, a smile on her face. As Robin smiled back and nodded, he noticed another Sladebot leaping onto Starfire's back. "STARFIRE!"
The Sladebot wrapped its arms around Starfire's chest, causing her to scream and drop Robin onto the ground. Robin landed right on Cyborg's head, knocking both of them onto the hard asphalt.
"You couldn't have landed just a few feet thataway?" asked Cyborg, standing up and pointing his finger in an arbitrary direction. Robin brushed himself off, looking around the parking lot had been completely cleared of Sladebots... except for one.
"You are squashing my grebnacks!" shouted Starfire, turning her head around and firing her eyebeams at the Sladebot that had grabbed her from above. The eyebeams hit the Sladebot's head, causing it to explode and immediately loosening the bot's grip from Starfire. The headless robot fell off of the Tamaranian girl and dropped harmlessly to the asphalt below. With a sigh of relief, Starfire stopped in place and lowered herself gently to the ground, surveying her surroundings to search for other Sladebots. She could see only her fellow Titans, standing together under a streetlight near the building. "We are victorious!"
"That we are," said Robin, brushing a few small pieces of gravel from his chest. Now that the battle was over, he had more time to reflect... and he could clearly remember the Titans' peculiar attackers. "Were those-"
The garage to the right of the refinery entrance slowly slid open, and out of the garage rolled what appeared at first glance to be a large, red and yellow tank... but on second glance was confirmed to be a giant energy cannon, its barrel pointed straight at the Titans. Four Sladebots, two on each side, were walking out beside it, while another Sladebot was mounted on top, apparently at the cannon's controls. The Titans immediately prepared themselves for another fight.
"Yep, those are Sladebots..." thought Robin, his mind suddenly filling with fear. "But that could only mean... Slade is back!"
O-O-O
As he felt the powerful shock still coursing through his body, Red X almost wished that he was fighting Slade instead of Sorel... there was no way Slade could be this powerful, was there?
Clenching his teeth had helped a little, but Red X couldn't hold in his pained screams for long, and he let out another cry of pain, much to the joy of Sorel, who only intensified the shock even more as Red X screamed.
"Now will you learn to follow orders?" shouted Sorel, his voice cruel and taunting. "You're a weak, pathetic fool, far too cowardly to fight the Titans... but rest assured, I'll treat you a hell of a lot worse than they ever would have!
Trying to muster up as much courage as he could, Red X looked straight into Sorel's eyes.
"You're not... intimidating me... by hurting me, Sorel..." groaned Red X, who suddenly noticed something. When Sorel was shocking him, the dark barrier around his body seemed to completely disappear. "Now's my chance..."
Sorel, absorbed in his torture of Red X, didn't see the thief's left palm begin to glow.
"If I'm not intimidating you, why are you screaming so loudly? Why do you seem so afraid of me, hmm?"
When Red X didn't respond, Sorel glanced down toward Red X's glowing palm. But by then, he'd already launched an attack... a shuriken X aimed straight for the jewel in Sorel's belt. The X embedded itself into the jewel, throwing out a bright flash of red sparks and causing lightning to course wildly around Sorel's body.
"What... have you... DONE?" Sorel screamed, his hair changing wildly back and forth from white to black as his body was engulfed in red electricity. Weak from the pain of the shocks, Red X could only sit against the wall of the elevator and watch as Sorel stepped slowly back to the center of the room, his hands over his face as the lightning he'd used to torment Red X appeared to now be shocking him. "You... you FOOL! You stupid, idiotic fool!"
"I think I just kicked your ass, that's what..." thought Red X, stepping weakly out of the broken elevator. The electricity coursing around Sorel disappeared, and the man collapsed to his knees, the jewel in his belt cracked and now glowing red, along with his hair.
"You think you've won... but you haven't..." said Sorel, suddenly picking himself up from the ground and wobbling to his feet. "You haven't nearly won... you destroyed my shield, that's all... but now... but now I won't be needing it, because..."
Around the room, pillars of fire suddenly burst up from the ground, striking one spot after another. As Red X felt the ground beneath his body begin to heat up, he leapt out of the way just as a bright jet of red flames shot out just inches away from him.
"That's not good..." Red X said quietly, turning back to Sorel, who was cackling as flames shot up from various spots in the room. In each of his hands was a bright, glowing red fireball, with red lightning coursing up and down both of his arms. "You're insane..."
"Oh, really?" said Sorel, his eyes narrowed as a smile appeared on his face. "Well, you're just dead!"
Sorel threw the fireballs at Red X, who painfully dodged them both and watched as they exploded into large bursts of flame as they hit the ground. Another jet of fire shot up from the floor next to him, and it felt as if the entire room was slowly becoming a sweltering oven.
"I'd better beat him quickly before I burn to a crisp..." thought Red X, the inside of his suit quickly becoming wet with perspiration. He clenched his fists, ignoring the pain of his earlier injuries and steeling himself for battle. "Without his shield, I've still got a chance..."
O-O-O
The Titans didn't wait as the giant cannon began to charge its beam. They rushed the cannon and the Sladebots flanking it, though Robin hesitated for a second as the reality of Slade's return began to sink in. As each of the Titans engaged one of the flanking Sladebots, Robin leapt up onto the cannon to face the operator himself, a particularly dangerous Sladebot wielding a pair of deadly nunchaku.
Robin ducked as the Sladebot swung the nunchaku at his head, but the second weapon caught him on the leg, its chain wrapping around his ankle and knocking him to the ground. The cannon continued to charge, and its operator kicked the stunned Robin off of the top of the machine, putting him directly in the cannon's path.
Raven, who'd just dispatched a Sladebot with one of her energy blasts, quickly ran in front of Robin and threw up a shield to block the large beam as it shot forth from the cannon, a powerful blue ray with smaller purple rays circling around it, giving it a spiral shape. Raven's energy shield blocked the blast, but it continued forward, and her feet slid back along the asphalt from its powerful force.
"Thanks, Raven..." said Robin as he stood up and wrapped his arms around Raven's stomach from behind to hold her in place. "Can you stop the beam on your own?"
"For a little while..." said Raven, clenching her teeth as sweat began dripping down her face, "but I think... I'll need more help..."
Though Robin was helping Raven hold her ground, her shield wouldn't be able to stand up for much longer, and soon, both Robin and Raven were being pushed back by the beam.
After using his powerful fists to smash the head of a Sladebot, gorilla Beast Boy ran behind Robin, wrapping his arms around both him and Raven. Again, they were stopped from sliding back, but the beam still pressed forward.
Raven's eyes widened as she watched her energy shield slowly start to crack. She knew it was just a few more seconds before her shield would fail completely, and she and her friends would be in serious trouble.
"Can't... hold it back... any longer!" shouted Raven, just as Cyborg's beam shot through the chest of the third flanking Sladebot.
"Don't worry, I'm coming!" shouted Cyborg, running up beside Raven and firing his blue arm cannon into the back of her shield. The boost of energy fortified Raven's shield and even pushed the cannon's large blue beam back a few inches. "Damn, what kind of weapon is this?"
"A Slade weapon," said Robin, his voice lowering in anger as he said Slade's name.
"One of the best Slade weapons," said the Sladebot operating the cannon, turning its beam up to maximum level. Now, the beam pushed even harder on the Titans trying to hold it back, pushing all of them several inches along the asphalt, and further damaging the integrity of Raven's shield. She let out an anguished cry, but continued to pour her own energy into the shield, her muscles tensing and straining with every passing second.
"We can't... hold it back... by ourselves..." said Robin, in nearly as much pain as Raven was, his arms tightly wrapped around her stomach. "We need... STARFIRE!"
"I am coming!" she shouted, firing Starbolt after Starbolt at the fourth and final cannon flanking Sladebot. With just a few bolts, the bot was completely destroyed, and Starfire flew over to the other side of Raven, using her eyebeams to fortify the shield further. Though Starfire's beams kept Raven's shield intact, they still weren't strong enough to completely hold it together, and small cracks continued to appear in the shield's surface. "This is not working... there has to be another way to-"
Then, Starfire noticed the Sladebot operating the cannon.
"Of course!" said Starfire, floating away from the shield and up to the top of the cannon.
"Starfire..." groaned Raven, barely able to keep up her shield any longer and puzzled that her friend would seemingly stop helping her. "What are you-"
"Look!" shouted Robin, his eyes glancing up to the top of the cannon, where Starfire was standing next to its Sladebot operator. "Way to go, Starfire!"
"You will turn off the cannon, please!" shouted Starfire to the Sladebot, who took one look at her before returning to the operation of the beam. "Grrrr..."
Starfire blasted the Sladebot in half with her eye lasers, and both halves of the broken robot fell to the ground, a mess of burned wires and metal. Starfire walked up to the controls of the beam and took a brief glance before pulling down a lever, apparently the cannon's off switch. The powerful beam immediately disappeared, and the four Titans who had been holding it back for several minutes fell to the ground in an exhausted heap, sighing with relief.
With a giggle, Starfire hopped off the beam cannon and walked over to her friends, who were groaning and rubbing their arms. Robin was the first to speak.
"Thanks, Star... you really saved our butts back there..." said Robin, smiling at her.
"I believe we all saved our own butts," Starfire replied modestly, wrapping her arms around Robin's back. "I am just glad you are all undamaged..."
"Yeah, but what the heck were those things?" shouted Beast Boy, trying to recall where he'd seen the familiar robots before. "Wait a minute... they were-"
"Sladebots," said Robin, finishing Beast Boy's sentence. "We're dealing with Sladebots..."
"Which also means that we're dealing with Slade," Cyborg said, and Robin gave a solemn nod.
"But then, that means... that the Red X is working with Slade," said Starfire, worried as she stated the horribly obvious. "Was it then Slade who compelled Red X to kidnap me? I truly hope that that is so..."
"Bravo, Titans... I didn't think you'd find me so soon."
The Titans all looked up to the roof of the cylinder... there, standing just above the entrance of the refinery, his gaze as menacing as ever, was Slade, his hands on his hips. He leapt down from the roof, nearly thirty feet, all the way down to the pavement in front of the Titans, who all went into fighting stances as soon as Slade hit the ground.
"What's your plan this time, Slade?" shouted Robin, knowing that Slade's plans for the city involved far more than just Red X.
"Now Robin, you know I'm not in the mood to talk about things like plans right now..." Slade said, his voice exuding the same cold, calculating nature that Robin and the other Titans had gotten used to from the master criminal. "Actually, I want to talk about choices."
"We don't have time for games, Slade," said Robin angrily, but Slade, unconcerned about Robin or any of the other Titans, simply continued his spiel.
"When Terra met with her unfortunate demise, I had to make a choice about who was going to be my new apprentice. Would it be Robin, as per my original desire? Or would it be someone... else?"
"I knew it... I knew X was being manipulated," thought Raven, her fists clenching as dark energy began glowing around them. "I just wish I'd realized that X was being manipulated by Slade..."
"And now, you're faced with a choice. Do you go inside and pay a visit to my new apprentice? Or do you come after me?"
And with that, Slade dashed from the parking lot with seemingly inhuman speed, his legs carrying him toward the rest of the city. Almost immediately, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, and Cyborg charged toward the entrance of the refinery... but Robin was compelled to go after Slade.
"Titans, we've gotta catch him!" Robin shouted.
"But... the Red X is-" Starfire began, before Robin angrily cut her off.
"We CAN'T let Slade get away!" Robin yelled, charging after Slade as fast as he could.
"Maybe we could split up!" Beast Boy suggested, reluctant to go after Slade and willing to take his chances in the tower with Red X.
Suddenly, Robin stopped, turning toward Beast Boy and yelling so that he could clearly be heard.
"Did you forget what Slade did to Terra?" Robin shouted, pointing in the direction of the city. With a frown and a nod, Beast Boy ran in the opposite direction from the refinery, following Robin, who resumed his dash into the city. Resigning themselves to a chase, Raven and Cyborg followed Robin and Beast Boy, while Starfire hesitated in the parking lot, sadly hanging her head.
"Remember what Red X did to me?" said Starfire quietly to herself, slightly angry that Robin had used emotional imagery to sway the other Titans. "I thought that you said it was best not to be so emotional..."
Flying away from the refinery and back toward the city with her friends, Starfire could only hope that Red X would still be at the refinery once Slade had been caught.
"Now that I know you are being controlled... I truly wish to help save you from Slade..."
O-O-O
Red X had to alternate between attacking Sorel and dodging the jets of flame that were shooting up from the ground. Every time one would go off, he would fire a shuriken X or an exploding X at Sorel and hope that they would make contact. Even when they did hit Sorel, they seemed to do minimal damage to Slade's powerful lieutenant, and even after taking a direct hit to the face by an exploding X, Sorel still rushed forward, a fiery bow appearing in his hands. From the bow of flames he shot several flaming arrows, which Red X dodged with quite a bit of difficulty.
"His attacks are so quick... it's hard to get out of the way of most of these!" thought Red X, rolling away from a fire arrow and into a powerful jet of flame shooting from the floor. The flames singed him only briefly, but still caused Red X a great deal of pain, and he collapsed to one knee, just as another of Sorel's flaming arrows flew straight at his leg. "Damn!"
"You can't dodge me for long," said Sorel, "and even if you do, it'll get so hot in this room that you'll be cooked alive!"
"I hate to admit it, but he's right..." thought Red X, the air forming waves in front of him as the heat in the room grew more and more prominent. Sorel's fire bow disappeared, and a horizontal jet of flames shot forth from his hands, scorching the ground just in front of Red X's feet. Red X leapt back, almost jumping into another burst of flame from the floor. The sharp sting of heat on his back informed him of his close call, and he let out a gasp as another blast of flame from Sorel's hands shot right at him. Barely able to escape the double flame blast, Red X ran over to the nearby wall and pressed himself against it.
"I can see it in your eyes, Sanza... you know you can't win... just give up and complete your final mission!" shouted Sorel. Flames ceased shooting up from the floor, and instead, manifested as three rings of fire that surrounded Sorel's body, moving up and down as he floated between them. "Otherwise, I won't hesitate to kill you!"
"I knew that already," said Red X, pointing his palms at Sorel.and blasting each of the three rings with an X. The Xs blew up on contact with the rings, creating a bright red gas that surrounded both Sorel and the fire rings, engulfing them both. "The gas will smother the fire... maybe I can put Sorel out this way..."
But Sorel leapt out of the gas cloud, his fists surrounded with fire. He began punching Red X repeatedly on the chest and face, a burning barrage that relentlessly battered the young thief, both bruising and scalding where Sorel's fists made contact.
"I'll just pummel you into oblivion, then!" shouted Sorel, laughing as he threw a punch that connected with Red X's face. After just a dozen punches, Red X slumped against the wall, unmoving. Sorel stopped his flurry of punches and looked down at the seemingly unconscious Red X, a smile crossing his face. "That's it? A few punches and you're out for the count? Well, I guess it's exactly what I'd expect from someone like you... now, do I kill you, or-"
Suddenly, Red X's fist slammed into Sorel's groin. Red X wasn't unconscious after all, and Sorel cried out in pain, his hands flying to the affected area. Red X smiled and rolled between Sorel's legs, into the center of the room. Sorel quickly turned around, his face red with rage.
"That was the last attack you're going to get!" shouted Sorel, angrily dashing toward Red X. Without hesitation, Red X leapt back, slapped an X onto the ground, then began running clockwise to his left.
"I can't stop him... so maybe I can contain him," thought Red X, slapping another X down on the ground and continuing to run in a circle, toward the area right across from where he'd placed his first X. Sorel, now catching on, leapt at Red X and blasted him with a ball of flame, which he leapt over and threw a third X onto the ground, right across from the first one. "Just one more to go..."
"I don't know what you think you're doing, but it's not going to work!" shouted Sorel, standing in the exact spot where Red X was trying to run to, directly across from the second X he'd placed. Before Red X could turn back around, Sorel grabbed him by the neck and flung him back into the far wall, then stalked over to him as he painfully tried to stand.
"Just... one more... just need to place one more..." thought Red X, before Sorel grabbed him by the neck again and pinned him to the wall. He squeezed tightly down on Red X's neck, a ball of flame appearing in his other hand. "Deja vu..."
"I'm going to shove this right down your scrawny throat, and you'll burn from the inside!" shouted Sorel, thrusting his fist toward Red X's face.
As Sorel's arm, flame in hand, began rushing toward his head, Red X could see it only in slow motion. Eerily similar to the attack Red Raven had nearly been able to finish him off with, it began bringing back the painful memories of all of Red X's past weakness.
"It's not going to end like this..." thought Red X, as he leapt up from the ground, his legs soaring up into the air. "Because I won't let it!"
With all the strength he had left, Red X slammed his feet into Sorel's chest. The powerful kick knocked Sorel back into the center of the room, the powerful flame still in his hands. Red X reached down to the ground and fired a fourth X just a few feet in front of him, the Xs making the shape of a diamond on the ground. A red Xynothium energy dome suddenly appeared in the middle of the room around where the Xs had been placed, trapping Sorel in the center. Red X stood up and placed his hands on his hips, while Sorel angrily tossed the fireball he was holding in his hand. The fireball slammed into the side of the Xynothium dome, but the powerful barrier held... Sorel was trapped.
"Why you... you little bastard!" shouted Sorel, firing a jet of flame outward toward the barrier. Again, the barrier held... and the heat from the flames had nowhere to go but inside the barrier.
"Who's weak now, Sorel?" asked Red X, watching as Sorel blasted the barrier with fireballs and heat rays, trying anything to tear down the mighty Xynothium dome. But it continued to hold, and before Sorel realized it, he'd trapped himself inside of a furnace. The heat from all of Sorel's attempts to escape remained inside the huge dome of Xynothium, and he could feel his clothes starting to catch fire.
"What... NO!" screamed Sorel, trying to put out the flames, but realizing to his horror that his entire outfit had caught fire, and inside the dome there was no way to put it out. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Red X suddenly took a step back... the room itself was hot, but inside the dome, the temperature had reached several hundred degrees, and Sorel was literally being burned alive. His entire body lit up with flame, and his eyes grew wide and horrified.
"HELP ME!" Sorel screamed, his mouth twisted in an anguished cry.
"You did this to yourself," thought Red X, but he couldn't listen to Sorel's screams for much longer before realizing that even one of Slade's lieutenants didn't deserve to die such an agonizing death. If he let Sorel die, he'd be a murderer... he'd be stooping to Sorel's level. Immediately, he ran over to one of his Xs and started trying to remove it from the ground, but it held tight. Meanwhile, Sorel continued to burn inside the dome, and he collapsed to his knees, still screaming in agony.
"LET ME OUT! Let me out, you sick son of a bitch! HELP ME!"
With a great deal of effort, Red X finally pried the X from the ground. The dome disappeared, and a wave of heat rushed out, blasting Red X into the wall. When he looked up, he saw Sorel's badly burned body lying face down on the ground, unmoving. One look at Sorel's charred form told Red X that he was too late... Sorel had been burned alive.
Red X stood up and traced the Sign of the Cross on his chest, sighing as the room temperature quickly returned to its normal level. He'd done it... he'd defeated Sorel... and no longer would he have to put up with any further missions from his former master.
At least, one of his former masters... though Sorel was dead, Slade was still very much alive... and Red X knew he wouldn't be happy that one of his lieutenants had been killed.
"I need to end this now..." thought Red X, looking toward the elevator at the opposite side of the room, breathing heavily with exhaustion. "I need to take out Slade..."
But Red X was in no shape to fight. The battle with Sorel had sapped nearly every bit of strength that he had, and instead of taking a step toward the elevator, he collapsed to the floor, removing his mask and staring up at the ceiling.
"I need to... catch my breath..." Sanza gasped, his chest rapidly heaving up and down. "I need to... I need to... need to rest..."
And with that, Sanza closed his eyes and slipped into unconsciousness. He didn't hear a soft crunch under his back... the sound of Robin's tracer being crushed into pieces.
O-O-O
The Titans' pursuit of Slade had led them all over the city, with all five of them barely keeping sight of Slade as he leapt from building to building. While Starfire, Beast Boy, and Raven pursued Slade through the air, Robin and Cyborg ran through the streets and alleyways, doing ground surveillance.
Finally, the Titans could see Slade leaping down into a vacant lot surrounded by tall buildings. He seemingly had nowhere to go, and the five Titans soon surrounded him, backing him up against a brick wall.
"It's over, Slade," said Robin, angrily pointing his bo staff at Slade's chest. "Come quietly, or fight."
"I've got far more important things to do," replied Slade, just as a flash of lightning shot through the sky. Rain began falling in the alley, but all five Titans remained focused on Slade, determined to keep him from escaping.
"You won't get away, Slade," said Raven, still bitter as she recalled how Slade had helped her father Trigon re-enter the world. "Whatever you have planned, we're going to stop you..."
"Pathetic Titans," said Slade, still as casual as ever. "You're just mad that I've already completed half of what I set out to accomplish."
"Enough talk, Slade!" shouted Robin, leaping at Slade with a flying kick. Robin's foot slammed into Slade's face... which suddenly disappeared, along with the rest of him. Robin's foot continued on until it hit hard against the brick wall, sending waves of pain through Robin's entire leg. He hit the ground hard, his ankle badly twisting beneath him. "Slade!"
The pain in Robin's voice told Starfire that he'd been badly hurt, and the orange alien quickly rushed to his side, her hands gently rubbing his ankle.
"Yo, dude... what the heck just happened? Did Slade teleport or something?" Beast Boy shouted.
"No," Cyborg said, shaking his head. "That wasn't Slade at all... that was a hologram."
A loud clap of thunder drowned out Robin's angry, frustrated scream.
"Please, calm yourself..." said Starfire, but Robin stood up and began hobbling out of the alley.
"We've gotta go back to that refinery," said Robin, taking out his T-Com and checking on the location of his transponder dot. When no dot appeared, Robin 'huh'ed in surprise.
"That's strange..." Raven said, looking over Robin's shoulder. "The trace dot you planted on X is no longer giving his location..."
"He must've found the tracer and destroyed it," said Robin, anger clearly evident in his voice. He'd lost Slade, he'd lost Red X... he could go back to the refinery, but it was likely that neither Slade nor Red X would be there when he arrived. "Guys... let's just go back to the tower... we already found out what Slade's plan is... half of it, anyway."
The Titans made a quick return to the refinery parking lot to regain their vehicles. While they were there, Starfire took one last look at the large structure, wondering if perhaps Red X was still inside.
"Please... may we make a brief check and see if the Red X is-"
"He's not there, Starfire," said Robin. "That's where the tracer has him located at... if he destroyed the tracer, he would've obviously gone somewhere else to get us off his trail. He's not here, Star... but don't worry, we'll get him... just like we'll get Slade."
"Red X as Slade's apprentice..." thought Beast Boy, as he transformed into a falcon and followed the four Titans back to the Tower. "If he knew what happened to Terra, he'd never want the job..."
O-O-O
Meanwhile, up in his chamber at the top of the Tekita Refinery, Slade watched as Sanza slept in the elevator room, having seen the incredible potential in having an apprentice like Red X. He liked everything he saw.
"Excellent, my young apprentice... soon you will be ready to help me take over the city... and destroy the Teen Titans in the process."
O-O-O
Sanza stood up after having been unconscious on the floor of the elevator room for nearly an hour. He rubbed his head and glanced over at the charred body of Sorel, still lying on the floor in the center of the room. He groaned, put on his Red X mask, and took another look at the elevator leading up to Slade's chambers.
"I should end this now... before any more harm comes to my family..."
But Red X knew he couldn't beat Slade. He'd barely beaten Sorel, and even though he wondered how anyone could be any more powerful than that, he knew somehow that Slade was...much more powerful.
He wouldn't beat Slade... but was that really the only way for Red X to save his family? X hadn't attacked Slade, just Sorel... and as long as his family was alive, Slade still had use for him as an apprentice.
"If he kills them, he makes an enemy of me... as long as they're alive, I could still work for him..." thought Red X, turning back toward the elevator leading to the exit. "But... as long as I'm working for Slade, my own life will be in danger..."
Red X couldn't protect his family as Slade's apprentice. Instead, he'd be doing the dirty work for a master criminal... and a man X truly despised.
There was another solution... a solution that had briefly come up in Red X's mind earlier that night. But the solution would come at a cost... a cost that was the reason Red X had taken the suit in the first place.
"I could ask the Titans for help..." thought Red X. "Not help to protect my family... just help to beat Slade."
Red X shuddered. Asking the Titans for help went against everything he stood for... or at least everything he thought he stood for. But that was before Slade had contacted him... before he was forced to become Slade's apprentice.
Sorel was dead, which meant no more missions. Red X would begin training as Slade's apprentice...
"No... NO!" thought Red X, shaking his head. "I'll never be Slade's apprentice... but if he threatens my family... if he hurts them..."
The rain had reduced itself to a light drizzle as Red X stumbled out of the refinery, still weighing his options in his head... weighing two opinions that repulsed him more than he could possibly imagine.
Red X thought of going home to his family... Maddy and his mother were probably extremely worried about him, and they'd definitely be shaken up from their experiences with the Sladebots.
The mere thought of the Sladebots threatening X's family made him clench his fist... had he not been wearing his mask, he would've spat onto the ground. He hated Slade hundreds of times more than he hated the Teen Titans... millions of times more.
With these thoughts of hatred in mind, Red X ran out into the night.
O-O-O
The Titans gathered in the main room of their tower. Robin lay down on the couch as Raven healed his badly twisted ankle. Starfire and Beast Boy sat on another couch, while Cyborg sat in front of the television, facing the rest of the group.
"Now that we know exactly why Red X has been doing what he's doing, we can figure out the best way to stop him," said Cyborg.
"And Slade," Robin added, a scowl still on his face. How could he have been so stupid? Slade was right under his nose, but he'd been too busy trying to stop Red X to see past him and look at the big picture. Now, the combined threat of Red X and Slade seemed almost as bad as the combined threat of Trigon and Slade just a few weeks earlier... Red X, a ruthless criminal with seemingly no qualms about getting his way, as Slade's apprentice? He could be more dangerous than Terra...
"We must warn Red X about the dangers of being an apprentice for Slade," said Starfire.
"I agree," replied Raven, sensing the painful memory of Terra forming within Beast Boy's mind. "Red X is bad, but he's not evil like Slade..."
"We're taking both of them down," said Robin, "starting first thing tomorrow."
A knock at the Titans' door, an unusual occurrence, especially past midnight. Robin started to stand, but Raven gently stopped him, almost done with the healing of his twisted ankle. Instead, it was Starfire who floated over to the door, pressing a button on the keypad that triggered it to begin opening up.
"I wonder who it could-"
Starfire gasped when she saw who was standing at the door in front of her. Someone she'd simultaneously despised and felt sympathy for... both captor and savior, now standing just a few feet in front of her.
"I... need your help," said Red X, without even a hint of malice in his voice.
O-O-O
Yep, Red X has finally come a-knockin', right at the Teen Titans' door! But how will they react? Will Robin punch him out? Will he score with Starfire? Will I ever write another short chapter again? Find out, same Titans time, same Titans channel!