Incident minus 19 days 17 hours 1 minute
Robin was engaging Slade in fisticuffs. Each blow was an exact equal to the blow received, both were equal, both pairs of arms were working like pistons. 'Have you grown so weak in my absence Robin?' taunted Slade. 'This is just a dream!' yelled Robin, at his combatant. 'If this is a dream, then Haaaaaawwwwooorrrkkk!' a loud snorting noise issued from the dream Slade, Robin woke up on the floor of his room. 'Haaaaaawwwwooorrrkkk!' There the noise was again. Robin couldn't breathe. 'Haaaaaawwwwooorrrkkk1' Robin realised that the noise was coming from his mouth.
His snores had woken him up and his mouth was completely dry, his lips were almost sealed apart from a small gap where his loud snores had issued from. He'd been obsessing again in his dream, the last time he'd been obsessing about Slade had almost resulted in his own death. Since then it had only been occasionally, in his dreams. But over the months since they'd never been more than once a week, but last week and this week…. He'd covered saying he'd been training up late, the others had believed the excuse, but Raven had been giving him suspicious looks every time he'd been asked by Starfire, BB or Cyborg. The Boy wonder rolled over and realised he'd been sleeping with his utility belt on, again.
Beast Boy was standing in the titan's living room, in his hands was the ultimate breakfast, two soybean buns, each filled with lettuce, cheese, tofu, tomato and carrot. Just as BB was about to take a huge bite out of one of the buns, the doors slid open and a girl in her mid teens drifted in. She wore a long dark blue cloak, with a hood. Her hair was purple and her eyes were a dark blue.
'Good Morning Raven!' Beast boy said with much energy and enthusiasm. Raven simply frowned and poured herself some tea.
'In what way can you possibly postulate that this morning is good from both our points of view? Or does that greeting mean that you wish to do the impossible, inflict upon me a good morning that features you?' Raven replied coldly, her gaze penetrating into Beast Boy's soul, stripping it, analysing and it judging it, unworthy of existence. Beat Boy shuddered.
'In case your wondering I didn't sleep well last night, as SOMEBODY was playing the Game Station until 3am.' Raven said, while levitating her cup of tea to softly in front of her.
'Wasn't me I didn't stay up the late, I went to bed before Cy.' Answered Beast Boy hastily, as if Raven had accused him of murder.
'I was gaming until Three A-M and I Feeeeeel Great, this morning!' boomed a voice from the doors. They both turned to see a third teenager, half his head was covered in metal plating and so was the rest of his body. He was a tall boy with the build of an athlete, and the mind of genius. He was Cyborg, technical expert for the Teen Titans and unofficial second in command. He was also addicted to video games and would often challenge Beast Boy to gruelling eight-hour marathons on the Game Station.
Cyborg strolled up to the kitchen bench and started preparing his meat laden breakfast, the perfect picture of a Teenager about to have a perfect day, Raven on the other hand was the exact opposite, disgruntled and wanting to get even for last night's irritation.
Slowly standing, she finished her tea and concentrated on BB's Vegetarian supreme breakfast. Jerking it with her telepathic power she almost made it splatter on Cyborg's back, but before this could happen Beast Boy jerked his hand back and pulled his lovingly made breakfast back to it's maker.
While the tug of war over beast boy's breakfast played out Cyborg was making his bacon filled, tomato sauce injected, egg burger. The doors to the room opened and Starfire walked in and stopped just inside the room, staring at the spectacle of beast Boy wrestling with his food. There was a gagging sound and Cyborg turned around to see BB choking, with half of one of his sandwiches sticking out of his mouth.
'Chew ya food for god's sake BB. C'mon let me help you.' Cyborg drew back one of his powerful arms and slammed Beast Boy hard on the back.
The next few seconds played out like a slow motion fight sequence.
The half digested breakfast roll emerged from Beast Boy's mouth at a high velocity, wheeling through the air; droplets of Beast Boy's saliva flew in all directions. The soybean bun sailed through the air, directly at Starfire. She dodged to her left and from behind her a voice said 'Morning Star.' The flying bun continued its flight until it crashed on impact with the owner of the voice. Soggy from its quick stint in the first stage of Beast Boy's digestive system, the Soy Bean bun filled with tomato, tofu, cheese, carrot and fresh lettuce splattered all over Robin the boy wonder's face.
Robin did something surprising in reply to the piece of partially eaten food hurled at his face, he turned his back on his friends, removed his mask which never removes, wipes hi face on his cape, before replacing the mask, albeit with a few food stains on the edging. His expression was grim, hard set, revealing nothing of what he was thinking.
Walking into the kitchen he poured a bowl of cereal, added the milk. Then he walked all the way over to the couch and started eating his breakfast, alone.
'Umm.. Sorry Robin.' Beast Boy offered.
'We didn't mean that man, it was a just a freak accident.' Cyborg said
'Like he said, we didn't intend it Robin.' Raven said.
Robin's body started to quiver, the other titans took a step back, Robin could be dangerous when he was angry. Robin put his cereal on the couch next to him, stood up on the couch, his face was as red as his shirt. He reached out with one finger quivering finger.
'Bwah Ha ha ha ha! Ha Hah Ha ha!' Robin laughed. 'You guys thought I was gonna' go crazy, you should've seen your faces!' Robin fell from the couch and rolled on the floor laughing, the other teen titans all breathed a sigh of relief.
'Dude, I'm the handsome funny guy who does pranks. Your supposed to be the determined angry leader guy.' Beast Boy said. Robin just shrugged, cleaned up his cereal, which had spilt and then headed to the training room.
Meanwhile at Jump City International AirportThe Boeing 767 hit the tarmac with a thud. The wheels screeched as the brakes tried to slow the speeding hulk of metal. The plane reached the terminal gates, and the passengers were disgorged, like vomit from a person who's just mixed chocolate, vanilla, prune and brussel sprout flavoured ice cream.
Emerging from the gate was a the only kid who didn't have his parents fussing over the luggage, or the climate, he had no parents at all. Walking past highly polished piece of metal Eyclone Stopped and checked his appearance. Damn I'm so fricking Cool was his first thought, h liked the way the pair of sunglasses he'd picked up, completely reflected everything, looking into his reflection all he could see was that eternally stretching illusion. Crap! They might have unloaded my luggage!. Eyclone ran to the luggage carousel, almost three quarters of a mile away.
Thirty minutes later
Everyone else on the plane had grabbed his or her luggage and left. A teenage boy stood leaning against a pillar as the carousel spewed out more bags and briefcases. Eventually a man in a security guards uniform approached Eyclone. Ok this might be bad, I'll just wait to see if he wants me to move along.
'Are you waiting for someone?'
'Yeah, He said he'd be late. So I'm kinda stuck here.'
'Ok then.' The guard walked off whistling a tune.
An hour and thirty minutes later.Training told him he should have moved on. But the fact that the data on the laptop was valuable, and the thirty grand in cash and the fact that the eighteen sets of false identities, complete with licences, social security numbers, credit cards, even a blockbuster membership card, were also in there made him stay. The guard returned.
'Is this your luggage?' he asked, holding up a Polaroid of his bag.
'Err yes officer.' play it a little nervous like any normal person would, deep down he was angry.
'Come this way, please' Crap crap crap crap!
The security guard lead him to a room with a two way mirror. Inside were two men in suits seated at a table, a third empty chair sat there. One was obviously a back up, you could easily mistake him for a shaved gorilla. The other was fit, same height as Eyclone and had really greasy hair and a comb over.
'Take a seat.'
'Do I get to keep it?'
'No.' said the shaved gorilla/big man
'It can talk. Can it ride a little bike on a track?'
Mr… Well we don't know who you are so I'll go with the name of this one here. So Mr. Dominic Friend, How did you acquire what appears to be quite a lot of pocket money, several sets of interesting cards, and a laptop which appears to be booby trapped. What I want to know I what's it all for?' The thug agent smiled, and cracked his knuckles.
'Well,.. I don't know your names, I'd assume you two to be Federal, probably not FBI, hell your probably just airport security wanting to crack me before the feds get here and your shot at glory is lost.'
'We are agents Denning and Mouggles of "The" FBI. And "We" will crack you.' Said the greasy man.
'Please remove your sunglasses Mr. Friend.'
Eyclone had been smiling up until this point but now his expression changed to show the anger lurking beneath.
'No.' he said flatly
'Please do as agent Denning asked' said the mountain that was Mouggles.
'How about I offer you agents here a deal. You give back my stuff, including the ID and you have my promise that you won't regret it.' Eyclone said.
'Are you threatening two FBI agents? While being recorded?' Denning said waving his hand to the mirror Crap, Well you should've expected, not every kid has a ton of cash and a laptop with plastic explosives.
'No, to threaten is to suggest the possibility of negative consequences. I'm guaranteeing negative consequences.' The agents simply shrugged and opened their coats to reveal their side arms.
'Ooooooo! You've got gunsy wunsies! I'm so scaredy wheredy!' Eyclone taunted. He stood up and leaned over the table.
'This is the event horizon. We stop playing games, either we're going to swerve around the black hole, I walk outta' here with my stuff and an apology, or we plough on through to the centre of the black hole?'
'Sit Down Now!' commanded Mouggles.
'Looks like Black hole time!' said Eyclone gleefully. Both the agents raised their eyebrows in puzzlement.
Eyclone's first punch took Denning by surprise, throwing him backward out of his seat and onto the floor. Mouggles jumped up and drew his sidearm, firing at the place where Eyclone had been.
The reason why Eyclone wasn't hurt is that he seemed to disappear in a puff of smoke. In Mouggles' earplug the voice of the technician manning the recording equipment warned him.
'Behind you.' Mouggles was about to turn when a crippling blow hit his lower back.
'Bet they didn't teach how deal with something like me at Quantico. I guess I won't be seeing ya.' Eyclone said as he stepped over the two fallen agents. His luggage was probably in the room behind the screen. Making a flicking action at the window, a bolt of white lightning shot from his fingers, hit the window and spread throughout the window before finally dissipating leaving the glass with a thousand cracks. The glass fell into thousands of pieces, behind the screen several technicians scramble for an arms locker against the wall; Eyclone's stuff was on a glass table.
Before any of the technicians could get a gun, a black cloud barred their path.
'This is the part where you guys run screaming like little girls' A voice said emanating from the cloud.
One of the men reached for the gun cabinet through the cloud.
'Big Mistake.' Said the voice. The cloud disappeared for second and was replaced with Eyclone, performing a back flip with his right foot extended to kick the man's face. The FBI techie was sent flying backwards and Eyclone shifted back to his cloud state. This seemed to break the spell on the others and they all fled the room, out into the main terminal screaming as Eyclone had instructed.
Eyclone repacked his bag, and then he walked over to a computer console in the room. Beating up two FBI agents, carrying a ton of fake Ids and a laptop with some serious security features meant that they had probably recorded him since he got off the plane. Luckily the computer was linked into the security grid for the airport, it was simply a matter of erasing the DVDs with the footage, wiping the flight records, removing all the stuff about the interview and then temporarily disabling the cameras and other security systems.
Piece of cake, I hope.
Walking out to the main terminal, Eyclone headed to the expansive car park. As he approached the automatic doors, a short bald man in a business suit, practically yelling into his mobile phone, pushed through the doors. Eyclone's first reaction was an ancient technique developed centuries ago by pickpockets and is considered one of the essential tactics that anybody who lives in the murky underworld of terrorism, international crime and espionage, learns.
Increasing his pace he accidentally bumps into the businessman/Lawyer and falls backwards. The man understandably insulted puts his hand over mouthpiece of the cell phone and starts ranting on about disrespectful youths, and how if he didn't have a flight to catch he'd sue Eyclone for every cent he'll ever own. Eyclone simply puts a scared expression on his face and resists the urge to roll his eyes at the angry and apparently wealthy lawyer. The lawyer finishes with spitting on the ground next to Eyclone before running into the terminal.
Eyclone pulls himself up from the floor dusts off his coat, grins sheepishly to the assembled crowd, before walking into the car park. Checking to see if anybody was watching, Eyclone puts his left hand into his pocket and withdraws a pair of car keys, with an Audi key chain.
Score!Walking around in the car park he eventually finds the Audi car, a black Audi TT car.
Score!Opening the trunk he sees three suitcases in the back. Opening the first he finds a large number of bills neatly stacked. Judging by the weight I'd say five million. Any more and this would be way too heavy.
Double Score!Opening the Suitcase, he finds exactly the same contents.
Triple Score!Breathing heavily he slowly opens the third suitcase, his eyes closed just to make it a surprise.
Crap!Inside the third case is, wrapped in several clear vacuum sealed bags, was 100 pure grade AAA+ Colombian Cocaine
Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap!Eyclone drove into the Jump City CBD, keeping to the speed limit at all times. He visited several hotels of the finest standard and rented the finest or closest to, rooms available. Then he went to a subway station, approached the payphones, using a small trick he'd learnt involving a narrow piece of wire and some probing of the payphones, he dialled a number, for free of course, that he knew would come in handy.
'This is the Alenighlington Institute of Dream Interpretation. How my I help you?' the voice at the other said, in that grating tone of a bored secretary.
'My name is Eyclone. Give me Chang now.' he said down the phone.
'Sorry. But there are no Changs here, and you should learn some…' Eyclone hung up.
He moved to the next phone repeated the subtle manipulation and dialled the same phone number.
This is the Alenighleng, sorry I meant ling, ton Institute of Dream Interpretation. How may I help you?' the same grating tone poured out of the speaker.
'Chang Now!' he yelled down the phone.
I don't know what…' Eyclone hung up again.
Moving to the next phone he repeated the same technique and dialled again.
'This is the Alenigh Hey..' the voice said on the other side as the phone was removed from her.
'This is
Chang, what do want?' demanded a man's voice with a slight
oriental accent.
'Chang.' Eyclone simply said down the
receiver. In the background on the other end of the line Eyclone
could hear some quiet swearing and angry exchanges.
'Ohh so sorry young sir, my secretary is new she didn't understand that calling my office directly and using names on a possibly tapped line was normal procedure…' He was about to continue but Eyclone cut in.
'Just shove it ok, I want stuff and you deal stuff. This is just like the old days, except that I won't pay using his old account. Ok.' Eyclone stated.
'Very good young sir, my condolences for your loss.' Chang replied.
'Shut up with all that sympathy crap, this is business.' Eyclone said hotly down the line.
'Sorry but these days people are expecting service with a smile, even if it is next-generation military hardware. I do feel you owe us an apology after our last meeting.'
'Does an extra ten grand count?'
'Yes it does. So what are you looking for?
'The usual gear for a clean job, flash bangs, chaff grenades, CS gas, filter mask as well, and I recently heard about a high density expansion foam designed for controlling riots. The only record I found of it was in Somalia, during the 1993 peacekeeping mission. I suppose you would've heard of it?'
'Ahh.. That, I do have several canisters of it, fired from a customised flame thrower. But as I recall the reason why it failed was because the rioters climbed the foam wall. How do you want to deploy it? Some form of escape aid, insta-wall for indoor environments?'
'Precisely, two hours, in the park. Payment in US 20s, acceptable?'
'Yes but I don't have the projector device, I suppose I could modify one of the new portable flamethrowers, no annoying back pack. all small and incorporated into the shape of standard assault rifle. It will take an extra two hours to retool it and for an extra fee of course…' Said Chang, always the salesman.
They spent the next few minutes haggling over the price.
Eyclone hung up and climbed the stairs to find the street almost deserted, except for a giant figure who looked like a child's sculpture of man, made out of concrete, and given the mentality of a cat whose just had its temperature taken the "other" way.
Cinderblock.
It is a small world isn't it…At that very moment a purple blur swooped down on the criminal/living pile of construction material. Green bolts of energy slammed into him. A red bike ridden pulled up beside the giant and Robin the Boy wonder jumped out.
Two frozen discs, a few blasts from a sonic cannon, some lucky punches from an angry gorilla and several levitating objects later.
The police had just arrived to take custody of Cinderblock. Robin was staying close, making sure that the criminal was secure. Cyborg was in the T-Car revving the engine as signal that he had other plans. Raven sat in the T-car, quietly reading a book she'd brought along.
Starfire was gravitating to and from Robin's side and a display of new dresses in a shop window. Beastboy was walking back to the group eating a Tofu burger, a chap take away joint on the other side of the road sold them, and beast boy was digging into his with great enthusiasm.
BB and Starfire climbed into the T-car and Cyborg gunned the engine, before powering off back to Titan's Tower. Robin was about to speed o on his R-cycle when hey briefly made eye contact with Eyclone. Eyclone's instincts told him to break eye contact and leave the area. He walked out of the stair way and casually strode off in the direction of a convenient alley. Looking over his shoulder he saw the boy wonder, still looking at him, their eyes locked. Crap better get outta' here. Eyclone turned forward and sprinted to the alley, just before he ducked out of view he saw Robin approach. Too fast now he's definitely noticed me. Running further into the alley Eyclone sees a wooden fence and some trash cans to the side. Instead of following the conventional tactic of jumping the fence Eyclone just cloud formed through it and reformed on the other side without breaking the pace.
Robin sprinted to the alley where the boy had just ran to. There was something about the boy. How'd calmly stayed on the stairs of the subway station instead of fleeing, how he hadn't moved through out the battle with Cinderblock, and then that staring at Robin and the titans. He was probably some fan, but when he'd fled into the alley Robin's instincts told him something was very different about him.
The alley itself was quite dark and gloomy, every surface had some form of grime or staining. Ahead of him was a wooden fence, footsteps echoing off the walls slowly fading away, Robin picked up his pace. Drawing his Bo-staff he held it like a pole vaulter and vaulted over the fence, retracting it just as he was about completely cross the barricade.
Hitting the concrete with a thud Robin resumed his pursuit of the boy. The footsteps ahead stopped and then resumed Robin ran round the corner and saw the boy running down another alley, this one leading to the main street. The boy reached the end and paused for a second to face Robin. The sun behind illuminated his figure, making him look taller and more imposing. Slade The thought just popped into Robin's head, but no this was just some kid.
The boy then turned the corner and was out of sight. Robin approached the corner and looked both ways down the street but the boy was nowhere to be seen. Turning around to walk back to his R-cycle Robin walked straight into the boy.
He was taller then Robin, had brown eyes and black hair with bright blonde streaks through it. He wore a dark coloured coat, camo pants and black sneakers. Hi shirt was black and looked well worn.
'Why are you following me?' the boy snapped
'Well I..' Robin managed
'Leave me alone. I'm not some crazy psycho am I?' the boy continued
Robin was stunned, how could this kid sneak up on him like this?
'Sorry about chasing you and…' Robin started
'You should be.' The boy cut in.
With that he elbowed past Robin and walked out into the street. Robin looked out trying to see where he went. Just like before he was nowhere to be seen. Up and down the straight, there were hardly an people the only things close to Robin were two small children playing with a tennis ball and a thick cloud of steam coming from a vent in the building on Robin's left. Robin simply shrugged and walked back to his bike.
A part of the steam cloud from the vent detached itself from the gas cloud and moved over to a nearby roof where it was suddenly replaced with Eyclone. 'Sorry about that but can't have you knowing about me yet.' He said aloud. 'Now where is this park?' He asked no one in particular.