Disclaimer: You know, I actually don't have to write this. The fact that I'm submitting this to Fanfiction shows that I won nothing. That, and the fact that protects us from lawsuits. Kewl...
A/N: Time to finish this one on up! I now have three series still in process, and its about to become two. Because this one's ending! Because of this, I really want to thank everyone that reviewed in this story! Thanks to you all for making this story so popular!
I would really like to thank all of you, but I'm afraid I've forgotten most of your names. I SUCK at names, so I'd probably screw 'em up anyway. You guys know who you are! However, there are a few people I WOULD like to thank personally.
First of all, my two biggest fans, Fenrir Hellfire and Krazy Kor! These two have read and reviewed every chapter of every story I've ever submitted! You guys rock!
Next, I want to Fargol, who inspired me to actually extend this story. If it wasn't for her, the story would have only had eight chapters. Now it has eleven! Big hand for Fargol, everyone!
I also want to thank a reviewer named Chaingun. Chaingun insulted me and my story in every one of his/her reviews. But it only inspired me to write better! Apparently, constructive criticism works. Huh. Who woulda thunk it!
READ NOW!
Chapter the Last (11): REDEMPTION
As Mammoth punched another robot in the face, he could hear Jinx groan behind him. Smashing two together ferociously, Mammoth turned to face her.
Jinx was leaning over a huge control panel in an underground vault. The control panel was connected to a large red and white bomb that stood ten feet in both directions. The keys beeped and flashed as Jinx typed in what she hoped was the override code.
The two were about fifty feet beneath the surface, in a huge bomb vault. Chang had built the large vault especially for the bomb, so it could blow up the city. It was rather easy to find, as he had said he would blow up the center of the city.
However, when the two Reforms had arrived, they had found another group of robots waiting to fight. Chang was getting out of hand here! As Jinx had run over to the bomb to disarm it, Mammoth had plowed headfirst into the sea of enemies.
It was a huge group of fifty white and red robots against a pair of injured teenage super-heroes. You to feel sorry for them. For the robots, that is.
"HEAH!" Mammoth cried, picking up a robot. He grabbed its Zintohium weapon and snapped it in half. He threw the robot against a group approaching. HE threw the destroyed weapon, and it exploded upon contact with the rest.
"How much time we got?" Mammoth asked, tuning to Jinx
"About twenty minutes!" Jinx cried impatiently. She was sweating now, hot and nervous. If she got this wrong, the whole city would be destroyed. If she got it right, they still had fifty robots to fight.
Not good odds, really.
"I can't keep this up!" Mammoth cried, throwing another robot against the cave wall. It was impaled upon a stalagmite and exploded. "Ouch..."
"Shouldn't take much longer," Jinx said, rushing now. Her fingers flowed over the control panel, dashing to and fro. If she made even one mistake, it was over.
"Well you don't got much longer!" Mammoth said.
"I know!" Jinx cried, typing even faster. "God," she muttered, wiping sweat off her brow. "I could really use Cyborg's help right about now..."
"HEY!" Mammoth cried. "Why can't we get Cyborg's help? He's a Titan, like us, right? Just call him on the communicator!"
Jinx's eyes widened. "You're right..." she muttered, looking down. Drawing her communicator, she quickly contacted what she hoped was Cyborg's codeword. "C'mon, c'mon..." she muttered. "Pick up! I know you're there! The things built into your arm!"
"Who's calling me at one in the morning!" came Cyborg's voice over the communicator. You have to remember, New Mexico is in a different time-zone, so it was an hour earlier over in California.
"I am!" Jinx cried.
"Jinx!" Cyborg said, now at full attention. "What's going on? You don't look good!"
"I'm not good, but this isn't about me!" Jinx cried. "Chang's over here in Cactus City, and he's set a bomb. Terra and Red X are fighting him as we speak, but we have to stop the bomb. But I don't know how! We need your help!"
"Got it!" Cyborg said. "What kind of bomb is it?"
"C5-43F," Jinx said, identifying the number I just made up in my head.
"C5 series are tough..." Cyborg muttered. His electronic brain whirred with calculations. "Okay, I think I got it! Her's what you do..."
As Cyborg explained the instructions to Jinx, Mammoth continued to fight back robot after robot. He grunted. "Man," he said, panting. "Wherever Terra and X are, it can't be as bad as this!"
:WHERE TERRA AND X ARE:
"Shit..." Red X muttered, staring up at the monstrosity before him. The robot that Chang had become rose up ten feet tall, possibly taller. His arms and legs were made of unbreakable metal, and were strong enough to lift several busses. His body glowed blue with electricity.
Terra visibly shuddered next to him. She had been expecting a big fight, but a giant robot? This was too much. Chang actually looked threatening for once. She was actually nervous.
"Think you two can handle a total transformation?" Chang cackled madly. "Let me answer the for you...NO!" With that, the evil genius maneuvered his new metal body to run forward. His feet made loud stomping noises with each and every huge step. He was upon the two in seconds.
"DESTROY!" he cried, smashing his hands into the ground. He hit the two and knocked them back. "Did you really think you could just come in and take me? I am invincible! I am ingenious! I am Chang!"
"You are obnoxious, that's what!" Terra cried, holding out her arms. Her eyes glowed yellow with power. "Time to get down and dirty!"
Immediately, the steel around them shuddered and broke as stalagmites of rock cracked through. Spinning her arms in a forward fashion, the stalagmites shot out of the ground and hit the scientist. Chang meely raised his great, robotic arm and the stalagmites crashed against them.
"Silly girl," Chang said, laughing. He turned his arm so it was facing her. It immediately transformed into a huge laser weapon. The inside glowed red with Zinothium. "Say good-bye now, pretty girl!"
With that, Chang fired his deadly weapon. The red beam of energy burst from the cannon, straight towards Terra. At the last moment, Red X jumped in front of the cannon and grabbed Terra, activated his teleportation.
The two disappeared as the red laser destroyed the floor they were standing on. A huge, smoking crater took its place.
"You can't hide forever!" Chang cried, firing his laser at them again. In panic, Red X threw Tera in the opposite direction and ran from the laser. Chang followed the red hero as he ran across the floor, his laser following right behind him.
AS the laser threatened to hit him, Red X pushed yet another button on his suit. As he did so, his entire body seemed to glow with red energy. Running across the floor from the approaching laser, Red X suddenly jumped on the wall and ran.
He was running on the wall! The ex-thief known as Red X was running completely horizontal, at a ninety degree angel with the wall.
"What is that!" Chang cried, stopping his laser. "That is impossible! You could not do that before!"
"I upgraded!" Red X cried, jumping from the wall. "I call it the Matrix-Bender! What's impossible for you...is possible for me!" Saying this, Red X jumped again in midair. Now, for those of you that don't know, you can't jump in midair. You can't do a 'double-jump.' It's physically impossible.
And that's exactly why Red X was able to do it!
Finishing his impossible jump, Red X landed right on top of Chang. Staring the villain in the face, he drew his X-blades and threw them on the robot. As Chang cried out in pain, Red X extended the X's on his hands, so he now had two, huge X's on the back of his palms.
"HYAH!" Red X cried, slashing diagonally. Chang's huge robot arm deflected the blow as the aerial X-blades blasted into him.
Red X continued to hack and slash at the giant robot, but to no avail. Chang's metal armor was indestructible. He couldn't be stopped.
"You cannot defeat me!" Chang roared, firing a pair of missiles at the young man. They struck right on, exploding upon contact. "No one can!"
"Maybe no one," Terra said, eyes flashing. "But what about something?" Saying this, the girl thrust her arms downward, yellow energy from them. As her hands made contact with the earth, two large Earth creatures rose up to fight.
"Destroy him!" Terra cried, pointing to Chang. As the scientist's eyes widened in horror, the Earth creatures roared and ran at him. As they approached, one threw itself into the ground below, turning to mud. The other continued on its way.
"You'll never take me alive!" Chang cried, punching the oncoming monster. It wasn't stopped however, and grabbed onto the mad scientist, still rushing forward. The monster shoved the robotic villain against the wall, and a huge crashing sound was made.
"Eat laser, bad boy!" Chang cried, activated his Zinothium cannon. The arm fired and vaporized the monster completely. However, he had forgotten about the second one. The monster in question then rose from the ground, grabbing Chang from behind.
"Now!" Terra cried, lifting a huge stalagmite into the air. The stalagmite flew thru the air, aiming straight for Chang. It struck its mark, slicing open the great robot's chest. Chang cried out in pain.
As blue electricity shot out in every direction, Chang fell to one knee. He grabbed at the hole in his chest, from which electricity shot out. His entire body was covered in the electric storm.
"You fools!" he cried, jumping back up. Roaring, he cackled into the atmosphere. "You will never win!" he cried, closing his fist. As he did so, a storm of electricity shot out, heading straight for Terra.
As Terra cried out, Red X ran in front of her, with no time to lose. The electricity struck Red X in the chest, and he keeled over, in pain. He screamed out loud as the blue sparks ran up and down his body, frying him. "Terra!"
"Red X, NO!" Terra cried, kneeling by her love. The electric beam was still coming, shocking him. She knew that if she touched it, she could get electrocuted as well. She had to do something, and fast.
"YEAH!" Terra cried, lifting her hands up. As she did so, a great wall of earth rose up and separated Chang from the two Reforms. The beam was cut, and the pain stopped for Red X.
"X, please be alive," Terra said, tears in her eyes. She knelt down and shoved him, trying to wake him. He slowly opened his masked eyes, and looked into her own.
"Sorry 'bout that..." he muttered, sitting up. He lifted up his mask slightly as he coughed out blood. "Aagh...feel like crap..."
"Are you okay?" Terra asked, holding onto him.
"To be honest...no," Red X said, coughing up more blood. "But this has to end. No matter what happens to me...Chang will go down, here and now."
"Such pretty words!" Chang cried as his robotic armor finally broke through the wall Terra had created. Hie metal armor was badly damaged from the two's attacks, and his bodys till flowed with electricity. His face was beaten, and bleeding. "And good thing, too."
"For they will be your last!"
:BACK TO THE BOMB:
"That should be it!" Jinx cried, typing in the last few commands. She turned to Cyborg. "What now?"
"You have to shut it down manually," Cyborg said, reading his own electronic instruction. "There should be a switch on the other side. Turn it off, and you shut it all off."
"Right," Jinx said. She turned to go hit the switch, and then turned back. "And Cyborg?"
"Yeah?"
"I love you," Jinx said, flipping the switch that turned the bomb off. It immediately stopped flashing and beeping, and shut down completely.
"Love ya too," Cyborg said solemnly. "But I think you have a job to do?"
"That we do!" Mammoth cried, looking over the robots. There were still quite a lot of them, and all were armed to the teeth.
"Right!" Jinx said. "Talk to ya tomorrow, after we've saved the city!"
"It's a date!" Cyborg said, switching off the communicator.
"Right then," Mammoth said, looking over the robots. He turned to Jinx. "Shall we?"
She grinned as her hands glowed purple and pink. "Let's!"
:BACK AT THE SCENE YOU ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT:
"They were no one's last words but your own," Red X growled, standing up. He was greatly injured, and still bleeding. But he was more than good enough to take down Chang. Once and for all.
"I despise you," X continued, walking towards the genius slowly. "The things you have done could make people sick. You sell drugs to villains! You create weapons of mass destruction! You experiment on children! CHILDREN!"
"Do you know what an evil man you have become?" Red X asked, his eyes narrowing. "You are not even worthy of the title 'man' anymore. That mush is obvious. You are nothing but an empty shell of a man. You have to use others to do your dirty work. You rely on your own inventions to lead your life. You are nothing!"
"I am still enough to destroy you, traitor!" Chang cried, rushing the hero. But Red X wasn't finished yet.
"Traitor? Traitor!" he cried, jumping up and over the metallic arm. He jumped again as Chang attempted to punch him. "You dare call me the traitor? You are the traitor! A traitor to your family, your country, your people! You make me sick!"
Saying this, Red X switched to invisible. Drawing more and more X-blades, he activated the targeting in his mask. As his sight went red, he found all the weak points in Chang's armor. And he slashed and destroyed each and every one.
"YEAAGGH!" Chang cried as his armor was ripped apart piece by piece by the invisible hero. Everywhere he struck, a part fell off, or was rendered useless. Eventually, Chang's entire body was redused to a metal skeleton, and was crackling with electricity like crazy.
"No! NOOO!" Chang cried, wobbly unsteadily. "It does not end like this!" With that, Red X appeared one last time in front of him, completely visible.
"Wrong," he said, his eyes staring into Chang's. "It ends here, and now!" With this, Red X planted one last X-bomb on Chang's chest. As he ran off, the grabbed Terra and a huge rock shield rose over them both.
Chang only had enough time to scream as the bomb went off on his armor's chest. A huge red explosion filled the room, and Chang cried out in pain. A blinding red light flashed thru the room.
Eventually, Terra dropped her shield. The two looked up, to see what had happened. There was smoke everywhere, and nothing could be seen.
"What happened?" Terra asked. She looked over at X. "IS he dead?"
Terra's question was immediately answered as huge blast of red energy exploded frm the smoke. The red beam struck Red X, and knocked him over to the Zinothium pit. Only a simple railing stopped him from falling.
"Children!" Chang cried, jumping from the smoke. He had been holding the cannon in his arms, and had struck Red X with it. He leaped on Red X and grabbed the young man by the throat. He lifted the hero into the air, strangling him.
"I will not allow children to fight me!" Chang cried, his teeth and eyes glowing with red fury. "DO YOU HEAR ME? YOU ARE INFERIOR!"
"Red X!" Terra cried. Finally, Red X spoke thru the strangling.
"Terra..." he choked out. "Shoot us down...the pit..."
"What!" she cried, taken aback. "But I'll hit you, too!"
"That is the way...it has to be..." Red X said, before Chang began strangling him again.
"Yes, child," Chang said, turning to the young girl and grinning. "What choice will you make? Will you let me get away? Or will you kill me...and your boyfriend too?" He turned to Red X in rage. "You do not know the girl. She is pathetic. She is weak. She will make the wrong decision, and I will get away. That is what heroes do."
"You...forget one thing..." Red X choked out.
"And what is that?"
"We're...not heroes!" Red X cried. Chang's eyes widened in fear as he turned to face Terra.
"You should've listened to him!" Terra cried, lifting up a HUGE boulder. "We're the Reforms!" And she shot the boulder at them, full speed.
Chang's eyes widened as he was struck by the boulder. He let go off Red X as he felt his body tumble over the edge. He and Red X fell down the long pit, towards the 200 degree Celsius pit of radioactive Zinothium. If they hit it, they died.
Halfway down, Red X came to his senses. Drawing an X-blae, he stuck the weapon in the wall, cutting through the metal. He eventually slowed his descent, and then stopped altogether. He lay there, hanging on the edge.
"No!" Chang cried, reaching out. He grabbed onto the X-blade as well, holding it firmly. He let out a sigh of relief as he hung next to Red X. They were both hanging onto the one weapon, the ends sticking out.
"Now what you gonna do?" Chang said in his most evil voice. HE laughed viciously. "You remove the weapon, you die too. If you want out, I have to go with you!"
As Chang laughed evilly, Red X glared at him. "You really are a fool, Chang," he said, staring at the old man. "You always forget the one, most important thing about your enemy when you need to know it. When you kidnaped the Titans, you forgot that Robin would stop at nothing to save them. When you forced Gizmo and Terra to work for you, you forgot that Terra always comes over to the right side, whether late or not. And now, you are forgetting the most important thing about me."
"And what is that?" Chang asked in anger.
Red X smiled behind his mask as he cut the weapon out of the wall. As he and Chang free fell down the long pit, he cried out "I CAN TELEPORT!"
Pushing the button on his suit, Red X gave Chang one last, insulting salute before disappearing in thin air. The hero was gone. As this processed in Chang's brain, he turned to look down. The fiery red element was fast approaching him.
Chang had just enough time for his eyes to widen in fear before he hit the Zinothium. His body was instantly vaporized as the radiocative element tore through him.
And so ended the life of Professor Michael Chang.
Red X appeared in a haze of red energy at the top of the pit. He threw off his mask, panting for breath. Terra ran over to him, and threw her arms around him.
"X!" she cried, hugging him tight. "I'm so sorry! I thought I had lost you..."
"It's okay," X said, hugging her back. "I'm fine, I planned the whole thing out. You did the right thing." He sighed. "And actually...could you call me Sergio?"
Terra grinned. "Of course," she said, closing her eyes as their lips met. They kissed for the first passionate time they could remember. They felt as one, no longer halves. Together, they were invincible. They finally broke apart, both smiling happily.
"Well, we saved the day," Red X said. "I think we can finally call ourselves Titans now. We are no longer Reforms."
"You can say that again," Terra said. She looked down as her communicator beeped. She checked it. "Jinx said the bomb was disabled. They're waiting for us to pick a new base."
"Good, then they can come to us," Red X said, standing up.
"Why?"
"You don't think Chang has a good base?" Red X said, smiling. "I think it'd be fine if we took it off his hands."
Terra grinned. "All right!" she said, running to the door. "I'm gonna go meet them! You coming?"
"Actually," Red X said, looking over the pit. "There's something I have to do first., if you don't mind."
"Of course," Terra said. Suddenly, she turned back before leaving. "Sergio...I like that name. A lot." And with that, the blonde geomancer ran off, ready to meet her friends.
Red X smiled as he watched her go. He turned back to the pit, and held up his mask. He took one last look at it. The skull pattern. The red X over the eye that seemed to match his so perfectly. He let it go.
The mask fell and tumbled over, down into the pit. It would be vaporized and disintegrated. It would be seen no more. Red X made a solemn prayer as the mask was destroyed. He gave a slight smile.
"If I wanted you to know who I was, would I be wearing a mask?" he repeated to himself, grinning. "I do want you to know who I am. I am Sergio Xavier."
"I need no mask."
A/N: W00t! Longest...chapter...ever! Didja love the bomb? Didje love the fight? Didja love the romance? Didja love the ending? Let me know people!
Personally, I love this ending. The Reforms are now truly Titans. Terra and Red X are together. Red X is over his identity crisis. And Professor Michael Chang is dead. Just in case you want to know, I got that name from the show. Michael Chang is one of the producers on the show, and Prof. Chang was named after him. Much like how Soto was named after producer Alex Soto. Betcha didn't know that?
Well, it's been long and hard. But its been fun, real fun! Now, make an author happy and review!
"I guess...in the end, there are no endings. Only new beginnings." —Raven, "The End Part III"
How right she was.