(Disclaimer: I am not, nor have I ever been a member of the Communist party. I also don't own the Titans.)
-Chapter Two: Grab and Go-
"Man, did you see that chick in the red?" Beast Boy exclaimed around a mouthful of pizza. It was the day after their stakeout—they had caught the Joker after a relatively brief but extremely cliché chase and had handed him over, heavily sedated, to the Jump City police to ship back to Arkham. To celebrate, Robin suggested that they go out to get pizza, see a movie, and maybe hit a club. This idea was promptly vetoed by the rest of the team due to the fact that it was four in the morning at the time so nothing would be open. Plus, they were tired. Fortunately, Robin was flexible on the issue, and amended his idea to include ample time for the Titans to catch up on their sleep first. This second idea met with resounding success, and having already slept sufficiently and seen a movie, which Cyborg won the right of choosing in a quick tournament of rock-paper-scissors, they were now eating at their usual pizza parlour in downtown Jump City, laughing, joking, and discussing the events of the previous night.
"What about 'that chick in the red'?" Cyborg asked. "Please don't tell me you thought she was hot or something."
"Well, she was, but I was going to say she was crazy," Beast Boy replied, a look of mild indignation on his face. "I mean, she came after me with a giant wooden mallet. A mallet! Who the hell brings a mallet to a superhero fight?"
"Crazy people do, Beast Boy, and Harley Quinn is about as crazy as they come, next to the Joker himself," Robin retorted with a wry smile.
"Yeah, and who would have thought that the Joker had a girlfriend? How twisted is that?" Cyborg said incredulously. "I heard somewhere that she used to work at Arkham asylum, too—isn't that where they usually keep Joker?"
"That's right," Robin sighed, suddenly looking deeply into his glass of soda, a serious expression on his face. "Harleen Quinzel—she was a psychiatrist, if you'd believe it. Then the Joker got his hands on her, and now look at her."
"I guess she got a little too far into his head," Raven mused. Robin shrugged.
"The Joker's crazy as a loon, sure, but he's still got a pretty powerful personality. He just fed her the right lies until she saw his side of things—probably charmed the pants off of her," he said, and snorted in disgust. "Literally."
"Friends, let us not allow ourselves to become preoccupied with such things!" Starfire cried, upset at the dark turn the conversation had taken. "Was the movie we just observed not fascinating? I, for one, was not aware that robots bled white!"
"I think that would depend on the robot in question, Starfire," Raven pointed out. "But don't take my word for it—I'm not really much for science fiction."
"Dude, how can you say that? You're on a team where three out of five members are science fiction!" Beast Boy exclaimed. Raven arched an eyebrow.
"Wow, you actually said something insightful. I'm shocked," she deadpanned.
"Oh, come on! I say insightful things all the time!" Beast Boy protested.
"You mean like your little verbal treatise on the relationship between bust size and physical attractiveness in the car on the way here?" Raven asked.
"Yeah, exactly! I…um…wait, what did I say?" Beast Boy said, scratching the back of his head in a futile attempt to jog his memory.
"I believe your exact words were 'Chicks with big boobs are hotter than chicks with little boobs,'" Raven recited. "I hit you over the head immediately thereafter, so that might explain your lapse in memory."
"Oh, yeah. I remember that. And that is insightful!" Beast Boy insisted, but Raven just shook her head.
"Beast Boy, that's so not insightful that I think it actually qualifies as being exsightful," she spat, crossing her arms angrily.
"That's not a word! And you're just saying that because your b…uhhh…" Beast Boy began, but then his voice trailed off precisely as though he had thought better of whatever it was he had been about to say.
"My what?" Raven growled dangerously.
"Um…n-never mind! I-it's n-n-nothing!" Beast Boy stammered, but despite his earnest desire to extricate himself from Raven's wrath it seemed he was fundamentally incapable of doing anything that did not irritate her further, for unfortunately he then added: "You look fine!"
"What is wrong with the way I look?" Raven snarled, and slammed her fists on the table.
Beast Boy's eyes widened and he began to back pedal, but with no luck. Robin sighed resignedly from the sidelines, able only to watch as the exchange spiralled further and further away from any semblance of civil discourse.
Jeez, it's actually a good thing our lives are interrupted so regularly by villains attacking us, because otherwise the Titans would self-destruct simply because of our inability to have a conversation without trying to kill each other, Robin thought, massaging his temples gingerly. Now, if only a villain would…
As if on cue, Robin's thoughts were interrupted by a shadow looming over him and his team. With a response born of constant practice and necessity, the Titans scattered as a large metallic shape smashed into their table from above. The table, which was a plastic and press-board affair that was sturdy enough only for normal use, collapsed instantly, and sparks flew as the metal attacker drew what appeared to be two buzz saws across the spots that until only a moment ago had been occupied by five teenaged superheroes. Executing a perfect back handspring, Robin took his staff from his belt as he landed, extending it and settling into a loose fighting stance in a single fluid motion. Behind his back, he let several birdarangs fall into his left hand in preparation, then sized up his opponent as it stood up after its initial attack.
A robot, about ten feet tall, with two arm-mounted buzz saws, looks relatively well-armoured, Robin thought, letting adrenaline push his mind into overdrive. Unfamiliar model, but weak points should be the joints, heat exchanger, and optical sensor array in the 'head'. Armament is dangerous but tactically inflexible. It will need backup for full effectiveness.
"Titans!" he shouted aloud. "Take it out before any civilians get caught in the crossfire! Aim for the usual weak spots, and watch for supporting units!"
Robin punctuated his command by throwing his handful of birdarangs, but as he suspected they had no effect—the robot was too well-armoured, and the razor-sharp projectiles simply bounced off its shell. Robin grunted with frustration and let his teammates handle the robot for now, leaping out of the way of its seemingly random yet incredibly efficient swings of its buzz saws. Briefly taking cover near a wall to palm a handful of high-explosive balls, Robin took stock of the situation, his eyes scanning back and forth for any sign of backup for the robot. Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He let instinct coupled with years of experience take control and rolled away just as a massive blade stabbed through the wall behind him. Robin swore and tossed the small bombs as a second robot crashed through what was left of the wall, but the explosions did nothing but scorch its armour. It was similar to the first one, but differently armed—as it stomped out of the wreckage and sighted on Robin the static stabbing blades at the ends of its arms fanned out into a pair of vicious three-pronged weapons.
Oh, crap, Robin thought as he dodged a strike that drove the new robot's right blade nearly two feet into the pavement. A second assault type robot—different from the first, but still not a full support, so there must be more of these things.
He leapfrogged over a second lunge and bounded off to rejoin his team, who were still having difficulty with the first robot.
"Man! This thing is tougher than it looks!" Cyborg shouted as he fired his sonic cannon, only managing to put a dent in the robot's armour.
"Yeah, and there's another one right behind me," Robin shouted back as he landed amidst the other Titans. "Another fighter, so stay sharp—there's got to be at least one more out there, probably a shooter or…"
Robin was interrupted by a pair of muzzle flashes, and Raven only just had time to erect a shield around the team before two yellow bolts of energy impacted on it, detonating spectacularly. A third robot appeared, its design quite different from the first two—it was stockier and more angular, with a long-barrelled gun mounted in place of its head and large cannons at the end of each stubby arm. The latter were smoking.
"Those are ion cannons!" Cybog cried. "They ionize shells so that they create a catastrophic chemical reaction on contact!"
"And that's bad?" Beast Boy asked.
"Well, they'll blow you up real good," Cyborg clarified. Beast Boy nodded sagely.
"Yeah, that would be pretty bad," he admitted.
"Dammit! Just take that thing out!" Robin ordered. "Cyborg! Its armour is angled to deflect projectiles, but you might be able to punch through it!"
"I'm on it!" Cyborg called as he charged the gun-toting robot. It was slow to react, and he was within striking range in a matter of moments, but just before he could land his first punch something streaked in out of nowhere and slammed into him, sending him flying off to the side. It was a fourth robot, again quite different from the first two, as well as the third—it was just as tall as the first two, if not even taller, but much more solidly built, with a huge, almost rotund torso and thick, bulky arms that, as Cyborg had just found out, packed a hell of a punch.
"A fourth one? Shit!" Robin swore as he and the others rushed to Cyborg's aid. "Sorry, Cy, I didn't see that coming after the shooter appeared."
"No problem," Cyborg grunted with a wry grin as he hauled himself to his feet. "It's not as strong as it looks."
"A slasher, a stabber, a shooter, and a smasher—that's a pretty effective combination, and it looks like they're all programmed to support each other. This is going to be difficult," Robin called to his team. "Top priority right now is the shooter, but take any targets of opportunity you can…whoa!"
Robin was interrupted by the first robot, which suddenly charged him from behind. He dodged the robot's broad, sweeping attack and kicked off of its back armour as it passed, destabilizing it enough that Raven was able to trip it up completely with a well-placed manhole cover she flung with a wave of her hand.
"Starfire, now! While it's down! Aim for the rear armour!" Robin screamed, but despite Starfire's immediate response she was unable to hit her target. The huge smasher robot had leapt to its comrade's defence, blocking her starbolts with its bulky arms. The shooter then counterattacked, firing another ion salvo to force Starfire to the ground and following that up by opening up with its head-mounted weapon, which projected a brilliant red beam that tracked across the pavement where the Titans stood, scattering them.
"Is that a military-grade cutting laser?" Cyborg asked, managing jealousy even in the heat of combat. "Ion cannons and a cutting laser? Man, why do the bad guys always get the best toys?"
"Titans! They're trying to separate us! Stay together!" Robin shouted, inwardly cursing the recent advances that had been made in military AI. Catching a glimpse of an orange and purple blur darting forwards towards the shooter robot out of the corner of his eye, Robin turned and cursed again. "Starfire! What are you doing? I said stay together!"
"I believe I have an opening to attack this 'shooter'!" Starfire called back over her shoulder. "I am engaging, I…aahhh!"
It all happened in the space of a few seconds: Starfire cried out in surprise as the stabber robot leapt at her out of nowhere, forcing her to change course. She tried to regain the advantage by turning over to launch a flurry of starbolts at her ambusher as she passed, but this was just as short-lived as her initial abortive charge—hearing the mechanical whine of an electric servo motor behind her, Starfire was only just able to change course once again to avoid the smasher as it lunged forward with its arms extended as if to grab her. She made it her new target for an even more ferocious barrage of green energy, but despite the destructive power of her starbolts they only managed to scuff and dent the heavily armoured robot's surface. Starfire was feverishly trying to come up with another plan when she heard another, much more ominous sound coming from behind her—the bass hum of an ion cannon being primed. She turned with a gasp, but too late to avoid the single glowing yellow shot. It hit her in the stomach with enough force to not only knock the wind out of her, which was something for a Tamaranean, but completely reverse her momentum, sending her rocketing back towards the smasher robot. Or at least, towards what the Titans had assumed to be a robot filling the role of a smasher—when Starfire was only a dozen or so feet away, the robot revealed its true purpose, and why Cyborg had deemed it to be "not as strong as it looks". The robot's large torso opened up, showing not the mass of motors and power supplies that was expected, but rather a small compartment that was completely empty aside from some thin padding over top of interior armour that looked just as thick as the robots exterior armour. The compartment was just big enough to fit a person inside, although not very comfortably, and as soon as Starfire unwillingly demonstrated this fact the compartment closed once again, trapping her inside.
"No! Starfire!" Robin screamed as the prison robot activated a built-in jetpack and streaked away. "Starfire!"
Robin sprinted forward to chase after the escaping robot, but its buzz saw armed compatriot leapt in his way with a wild swing of its weapon. Robin somehow managed to twist enough to avoid the spinning blades, but still caught a hard blow from the robot's arm which sent him sprawling back amongst the other Titans. The stabber and shooter robots moved up to support the slasher, forming a loose defensive line.
"Looks like we'll have to fight our way through these guys," Cyborg observed as he helped Robin to his feet. Robin dusted himself off and glowered.
"That's fine with me," he muttered menacingly, then sprang back towards the robots with a cry of "Titans! GO!" Robin flipped up and over the slasher to avoid another of its wild swings, getting just enough hang time to allow it to turn around in order to attack him again as he landed—before he did, though, Robin kicked off its front armour, taking himself just beyond the robot's reach and leaving behind a rather large yellow and black disc stuck on its chest plate.
"Cyborg! Batter up!" Robin yelled as he darted towards the stabber robot, readying his staff. The disc beeped discreetly and then exploded, far more spectacularly than anything anyone habitually carried on their belt ought to, sending the slasher flying backwards towards Cyborg, where the mechanical teen had uprooted a nearby lamp post and stood ready. As the robot neared him, he swung as hard as he could, hitting it in the back where its weaker rear armour simply crumpled. Its power core exploded, tearing the robot apart and sending shards of metal in all directions. Cyborg grinned.
Robin, meanwhile, was viciously attacking the stabber, deftly avoiding its attacks while landing dozens of his own, leaving multiple dents in its armour. Finally, as the robot launched into a particularly deep lunge, Robin snaked around its extended arm and jabbed the end of his staff into the robot's relatively fragile optical sensor. Its only means of seeing smashed to pieces, the stabber robot was helpless to avoid the city bus that Raven slammed into it from above—if it was not destroyed, it was most certainly trapped beneath several tons of twisted metal.
Again, Robin darted forward, this time homing in on the shooter, the last of the three blockading robots. He only managed to get within twenty feet before it opened fire, however, and he was forced to evade. He sprinted to the side, staying only a few inches ahead of the robot's cutting laser, ion bolts exploding all around him, when he noticed a small green hummingbird flitting unnoticed towards the robot. Robin grinned nastily as Beast Boy dropped down within only a few feet of the shooter, changing into a T-rex as he landed. With a quick spin of his body, Beast Boy had knocked the shooter a good ten feet through the air with his tail, and then lunged at the robot, catching it in his mouth after allowing it to bounce off the pavement only once. With a quick crunch the robot was no longer a threat to anyone, and Beast Boy tossed it aside with a casual flick of his head before resuming his human form.
"Right," Robin growled as the others rallied around him. "Which way did that last robot go?"
OOO
The prison robot sped along a city street, kept several feet above the pavement by its jetpack. The street was relatively empty—the robot had left the busy downtown area and entered the financial district, and since it was after business hours there was hardly anyone around. Aside from the occasional car, there were only a few pedestrians to witness the robot's passing. It ignored them, as well as the constant banging coming from within its armoured compartment, and continued to cruise towards some destination known only to it. Had its creators thought to build it with optical sensors in the back as well as the front, though, the robot might have seen its pursuers, who it would most likely not have ignored.
"Cyborg! Now!" Robin screamed and Cyborg, who was being carried by a pterodactyl-formed Beast Boy, blasted the robot's jetpack with his sonic cannon. The robot immediately dropped to the pavement, its momentum causing it to pitch forward as its feet dug in—it seemed to be built for this, however, as it simply ducked its shoulder forward and curled its bulky arms around itself, turning what might have been a wild head-over-heels tumble into a perfectly controlled sideways roll. After a moment the robot apparently deemed itself to have bled off enough of its forward momentum and halted its roll by extending one arm so it flipped up onto its feet facing the Titans. It was still moving fast enough that its feet left a pair of deep gouges in the road, and to fully stop its motion the robot had to drop one clawed arm to help, which left a pattern of smaller gouges itself. As it ground to a halt it shifted the position of its limbs slightly, loading its legs to spring forward, covering its vitals with its extended arm, and drawing its free arm back to strike—it was a highly defensive stance that still managed to maintain a significant offensive threat, and it was a testament to the effectiveness of the robot's programming that it was able to drop into such a perfectly engineered stance within mere moments of registering a threat. All that did not matter one bit.
"Titans! Hold it!" Robin barked, and his teammates all seized the robot in their own way. Raven encased it in the glowing black aura of her powers, Beast Boy changed into an octopus and wrapped every available tentacle around its limbs, and Cyborg simply ran up behind it and put it in a rough equivalent to a full Nelson. Bound up like this, the robot was completely helpless. Robin grinned and strolled up to within a few feet of it.
"Straighten it up," he ordered quietly, and the other Titans forced the robot out of its stance, wrenching it completely upright to expose its armoured torso plate. Robin ran his fingers over the robot's armour, finding and tracing the seam where it had opened up to expose its internal compartment. He smiled nastily and took a few small discs from his belt.
"I always did kind of want to be a surgeon," Robin said with a chuckle as he placed the discs on various points along the seam in the robot's armour. After a few seconds, a small red light began blinking on each disc, and the metal surrounding them began to melt. Finally, each disc exploded in a series of muted thumps, causing the armour plates on the robot's torso to separate slightly. Robin frowned—he had hoped that the armour would just split apart like the shell of a nut, but it seemed that it was tougher than he had anticipated.
"Well, so much for surgery," Robin murmured with a shrug as he extended his staff and jammed it between the armour plates. He heaved on the end of the staff, separating the plates only a little bit more, and just as he thought he would have to try something else, Robin saw flickering green light shining through the crack in the robot's armour. His eyes widened and he jumped clear, drawing questioning looks from his teammates, but any questions they might have asked were answered a split second later, when the robot's torso plate was blown clean off from the inside in a burst of intense green energy and Starfire flew out.
"Titans!" Robin began, but he was interrupted by a wordless scream of rage from the newly freed alien girl as she unleashed a powerful beam of green energy at her former captor. Surprised by Starfire's ferocity, the other Titans released the robot just in time for it to be hit by a second, even more powerful blast which sent it hurtling backwards. Even as it attempted to get back to its feet, the robot found itself on the receiving end of a series of brutal attacks—Starfire had sped forward and was now battering it with her bare fists. She finished her assault by seizing the robot's head, planting her feet on its shoulders and heaving with all her might, tearing the robot's head right off in a shower of sparks and a spray of coolant and lubricant fluids. Starfire stood for a moment holding the head, spattered with oil, as the robot's body tipped over and fell noisily onto its back and her fellow Titans stared at her in shock. She turned to look at them, tossing the head carelessly over her shoulder.
"I do not like being…enclosed," Starfire said darkly. The other Titans just continued to stare wordlessly.
"L-let's…let's go home," Robin stuttered after nearly a minute of shocked silence, and with this Starfire brightened, smiling as happily as ever.
OOO
"…and then when I saw the robot's armour crack open I fired my most powerful starbolt and was able to burst free," Starfire said, just finishing her explanation of what had happened when she was inside the robot. "And, well, you all saw what happened after that."
"Yeah, you tore its head off!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "That was awesome!"
"I didn't know you had it in you to be so…violent," Raven added.
"Tamaran is a planet of warriors, and I did say that I do not like being enclosed," Starfire reminded them. "And besides, was it not merely a robot?"
"I suppose so…" Raven murmured. She did not look convinced, but let the matter rest for now.
"So, you're fine?" Robin asked, and Starfire nodded. "Good. Is there anything else?"
"Yeah, I've got something," Cyborg said. "I thought I recognized the designs of those robots, so I did some checking. They're from S.T.A.R. labs. They were developed a few years ago for the military but never went into full production. Quite a few were still made, though, and they were pretty popular with private security forces and some of the wealthier militia groups for a while. These models are outdated now, though, so no new ones are being made, although S.T.A.R. labs still manufactures replacement parts."
"Perfect. If we find out who bought those robots, then we'll know who sent them after us—good work, Cyborg," Robin said with a grin, but Cyborg shook his head.
"Don't congratulate me yet," he muttered ruefully. "The robots' serial numbers had been removed, and they were rigged up so their hard drives were completely burned out as soon as they were destroyed. I can't get you any definite info on when they were made, who bought them, or anything else." Robin frowned, creasing his brow and steepling his fingers in front of his face as he thought for a moment.
"That may not be that big of a problem, actually," he said finally. "Cyborg, you know S.T.A.R. better than I do, so check up with them to see who still owns models like these—if they still make replacement parts then they'll probably have a list of customers. Then ask around the owners to see if any of them sold any recently, and where. That might narrow it down enough to find our guy. Let me know what you find."
Cyborg nodded, and since nobody else had any business to bring up Robin declared the team meeting adjourned. The Titans all separated to do their own things throughout the tower—Cyborg went to his room to start on his research, Raven went to her room to read, Beast Boy went to the living room to watch some late night cartoons, and Starfire went to have a shower, or, as she put it, 'cleanse herself after her ordeal'. Robin was left alone in his briefing/control room, staring at the images of the robots he had pulled up on his computer screen.
"Who the hell are you, and what do you want with Starfire?" he whispered.
-End Chapter Two-
Author's Note: It took me a lot longer to write this chapter than I thought it would. I started out with some serious writer's block on how to begin the chapter, and I'm still not completely happy with that first paragraph, but I've read it over about a dozen times now and I can't figure out how to say what I want to say any better. I kind of liked the dialogue that followed, and I think my little experiment with the "stick with one character" method of writing group fight scenes at least showed some promise, so all-in-all I'm happy with how it turned out. Also, I've been told that the best thing for my writing right now would be lots of practice, and I'm not sure that endlessly agonizing over how to make every little bit of every chapter perfect would count, because I'd probably end up writing a hell of a lot less.
Anyway, some character notes: I know that some people might object to me making Beast Boy into a typical breast-fixated teenaged boy (especially considering his infatuation with Terra, who may well be in the negative cup sizes from the look of her). However, my interpretation of Beast Boy is that he's had a pretty shitty childhood, all things considered, but he covers it up by acting out and trying to look tough. 'Manly' comments about boobs would be a part of this. The only other thing I think might be controversial would be Raven's response to Beast Boy's comments, but I justify it thusly: a) Beast Boy bugs her—whether this is a sign of attraction or not, the bottom line is that he can push her buttons; b) this is the second time she's had her appearance called into question by a teammate (remember 'Switched'?); c) honestly, the girl's got some anger issues. It's understandable, of course—I mean, she's got a little red version of herself in her head yelling at her all the time about how "hatred will rule" and all that. I don't know about you, but that would make me kind of irritable.
Yeah, so now is about when the whole "Starfire acting weird" thing starts up. That particular little bit of out-of-character is an integral part of the plot, so I'm not going to explain it just yet. And if you think she's acting out-of-character now, just wait until you see what I have in mind for the next chapter. Speaking of the next chapter—the Hive Five will be making an appearance! God dammit, why are all supervillain group names so horribly bad?
To My Reviewers:
falyn anjel: Oh, yes, more about the good doctor will be coming in the next few chapters! Well, he's not really all that good, but you know what I mean. It probably won't be in the very next chapter, but eventually he will be back.
samanth2121: Thanks! I will try to!
Blackbird: Glad you didn't miss this. Ah, clones. Good old clones. Whether or not that little tidbit will have any impact on the story will be revealed in a few chapters, I'm afraid, so I can't say just yet. Of course, I realize that this is just as good as an admission that it will impact the story, but whatever. I will endeavour to stay away from that terrible, Spider-Man-esque "the clone was really the real one all along" plot twist. I mean, Ben Reilly was a nice guy and all, but I am still so very glad he's dead so Peter can get back to, you know, being Spider-Man. Cripey, that was an awful storyline.