Gotham City Concerto
A Teen Titans Fan Fiction by Jacob McDonald
Opening Notes: This is about half the size of what I normally post. That's because I wanted it to be. :) This is the inbetween chapter, so expect tons of action, and... tons of action. That's it.
Standard disclaimers apply. I don't own Teen Titans, but isn't this a damn cool chapter name?
Chapter Four - Emerald Knight, Obsidian Dawn: Part Two
"I've got a visual on several men coming out of the side entrance of the weapons development wing." Blackfire whispered into her earring, "Do I move to engage them?"
"Negative." came Oracle's response, "They're just loading things into their van. They'll wait for the other four inside before they leave. I need you to go down through the vents and try to corner the men inside one by one. I'm not sure who they're working for yet, but with the hardware they're stealing, I don't think we can wait to find out."
"Got it." Blackfire walked to a roof vent and yanked the cover off of it. She floated up and down into the dusty tube with a frown, "This is nasty."
Black Canary watched as Blackfire floated down into the ventilation system of the West wing of S.T.A.R. Labs. She frowned down at the three men waiting out by the van and considered her options. She would be able to get in good with whoever was calling the shots for the two Tamaranians if she did a little work.
Grinning, she started down the side of the building across the street and prepared to go kick some ass.
Starfire walked quickly down an ally way and out into the street beyond. She glanced both ways up and down the road, but the crime scene tape made this area of the Hill more or less off limits. With the kind of case she was working now, it was small wonder why no one wanted to be near this particular convenience store.
"I am approaching the store now." she said to Oracle.
"Proceed with caution, Star. We don't know if the bastard is still lurking around somewhere."
"I will be careful." Star pushed open the shattered glass door of the store and stepped inside quietly. It only took her a moment to locate her crime scene.
There was a body outline drawn on the floor, and scattered snack foods littered the area. The major tip off though was the dried blood.
It was everywhere. In a huge puddle around the spot the body had been, and several foot prints leading to the door, as well as drips moving alongside the foot prints.
"How can any one person have so much blood in them?" she whispered, feeling slightly sick.
"I know it's shocking to see your first time, Star, but try to stay focused. I can't get a good visual through the security cameras, so you'll have to tell me what you see. Are there blood drops leading away from the scene?"
"Yes. Perhaps blood dripping from the knife?"
"Something like that. Can you get a sample and send it along with the com unit?"
Star knelt down and pulled out her small com device. She used a small metal instrument to scrape up one of the blood droplets and send it to Oracle for genetic scanning.
"What is it you are hoping to find?" she asked.
"Actually, it's what I'm hoping NOT to find... come on... come on... no... damnit."
"What is it?" Star started for the door, satisfied that Oracle had her information.
"The genetic scan just came back... it's what I feared."
"A known serial killer?"
"No... serial killers have method, and reason. Victor Zsasz defies categorization."
Starfire paused at the door and scanned her memory for any mention of Zsasz. Coming up blank she shrugged and let her eyes follow the blood trail. It went out to the street, and ended abruptly.
She eyed the manhole cover, "He slit the man's throat in broad daylight, and no one saw who he was?"
"People more or less ran for their lives. The blood you found was his from where he etched a tally mark into his own skin."
"To keep track of his kills?"
"Exactly."
"I think he may have fled to the sewers. I wish to investigate further."
"Not a bad idea. He's been known to use the sewers before... just be careful Star... he's not like normal killers. When he gets it in his mind to target someone, he's almost unstoppable."
Star nodded, "Understood. I will exercise caution, but if I do encounter him, I will not hesitate to use all the power at my disposal to stop him." she yanked the man hole cover up and dropped down, under the streets of Gotham.
In the shadows, Dick looked on with distress. He quickly made his way into the store and inspected the scene. He checked the foot prints.
"Brand new size twelve's... about... damnit, six two, two hundred fifteen pounds..." he fingered one of the blood droplets, "Zsasz..."
Blackfire dropped down into a storage closet from the vent she had been crawling through and landed silently on the floor. She held a hand to her earring, "I'm in."
"Good. Go out to the hallway and down three doors to your right. Take out all four men, Blackfire, but don't kill them, and don't set off any alarms."
"Very well." she nodded and opened the door. She set off down the hallway and counted the doors as she passed. When she reached the third one, she saw it was already open, so she glanced in.
Sure enough, four men were in the process of lifting a large device into a crate. She grinned and powered up an energy blast.
As soon as they had the device lowered down, she let fly with the purple energy, blasting two of them off their feet and across the room. The low powered pulse would knock out a normal human, but not harm them much more.
The remaining two men whirled around and attacked immediately. One started throwing knives from every conceivable place on his body, and the other pulled out a revolver and started blasting shots off at her.
Ducking back around the corner and taking flight, Blackfire spoke to Oracle, "Two of these men are not going to go down easy. One of them is dressed like a... I don't know... a Zarflen with lots of knives, and the other is a large man wearing a silly hat and toting one of your primitive Earth firearms."
"I've got security footage now... looks like Brutal and Stallion... Blockbuster's goons."
"And this means what to me?" Blackfire swooped down low to avoid more gun fire, then around a corner.
"It means you get to blast them to next Tuesday. Like I said, don't kill them, but take them out."
"This is going to get loud then..." Blackfire grimaced as she powered up blackbots on each hand. With a battle cry, she swung around the corner and started throwing energy bolts with unmatched fury.
Oracle watched in abject horror as Blackfire began to annihilate the interior of the lab. She shook her head and scowled, "Why did I agree to this?" checking the three men waiting by the van, she saw them grow alert at all the noise Blackfire was making, but she also saw something strange.
A cloaked figure was creeping across the grounds and sneaking up on the van. As she watched, the mystery sneak threw off the cloak, revealing a green and yellow clad blonde woman, who jumped the hood of the vehicle and started pummeling the three thugs outside.
Babs checked her computer files quickly and came up with a hero matching the description. "Black Canary, huh?" she arched an eyebrow, "What are you doing there, Miss Lance?"
Blackfire ducked back again and threw several more blasts down the hallway. A bullet bounced off the wall next to her head and she growled.
"Dmanit!" she screamed, and grabbed the wall next to herself, digging her fingers in around the metal panel. Yanking outward, she pulled the solid steel chunk of wall out in front of herself and across the hall, using it as a shield to block the flying knives and bullets.
Backing down the hall a little further, Blackfire looked around for anything that could help her. All she saw was a light fixture. "Double damn." she muttered.
Suddenly, a red-hot circle appeared on her makeshift barrier, and soon a ray of energy melted through, blasting down the hall at her. Blackfire ducked to the side and stared with wide eyes as Stallion kicked the rest of the barrier down.
"This here heat gun we found works pretty damn good, wouldn't you say, Baby?"
Blackfire scowled and threw a blackbolt down the wide barrel of the gun.
Stallion tossed the weapon away as it exploded, but he was still blasted off his feet and over Brutal's head. The knife throwing man dressed as a wombat with wings didn't even pause to see if his partner was hurt before he hurled another dagger.
The blade sunk into Blackfire's shoulder, and she cried out in pain. With her teeth grit in frustration more than anything, she yanked it out and threw it back, following it with several energy blasts.
Brutal ducked to his left, and into a doorway, giving her enough time to fly down the hall, and around a corner.
"Damnit all... why can't I just kill them and get it over with?"
Starfire moved down the length of the sewer tunnel as quickly as she could without making much noise. She held out one hand, glowing green to illuminate her way, and followed the trail of occasional bloody handprints on the walls.
After what seemed to be almost an hour, she came to a place where a grating above her had been forced open, then shut again. She frowned up at it, and blasted it off it's hinges.
Jumping up to the area above, she found that she was crouched in a subway station. Looking about and confirming she was alone, Star began her search for clues as to where Zsasz might have gone after he had emerged from the sewers.
"Oracle? I believe Zsasz has fled to the subway system. Can you search the security cameras and find his location?"
There was a long pause, then the rather annoyed sounding voice of Babs came over the earring, "There's almost a hundred miles of subway tunnels in Gotham, Star, it's going to take a few minutes to set up a program to search them for any motion that would indicate an object the size of a person."
"I will attempt to narrow your search area, but there is little to go on... down... here..." Star's eye caught something on the floor and she walked over to it. Kneeling down near the loading area of the platform, she picked up a rather expensive looking pen. Turning it over in her hand, she saw it was monogrammed with the initials, 'JAH.'
Further inspection revealed the brand, "Oracle, if you had a Parker Exceptcial pen, monogrammed with your initials, where would you keep it?"
"Um... in my desk or in my hand... that's an eighty dollar pen."
"So finding one laying on the ground of the platform isn't exactly normal?"
"No... I'd say not."
Starfire leaned forward and looked down the subway tunnel. A breeze blew out and her hair waved around her head.
Narrowing her eyes, Star said, "Standby, Oracle. I am going to investigate a lead."
Black Canary threw one finally punch and watched with a satisfied smile as the man's head snapped back and bounced off the hood of the van. Dusting off her hands she smiled and turned to the doors of the weapon development wing Blackfire was inside of.
She took one step before her cell phone rang.
Frowning, she pulled it out of it's pouch, "Who's calling me at this hour?" she wondered aloud and flipped it open, "Hello?"
"Hello, Miss Lance." came a strange computerized voice, "You did quite a number on those men just now."
"Who is this?" she demanded, looking around wildly, "How'd you get my number?"
"Look a little higher... left a bit. There. See me now?"
Canary was looking right into a security camera, "Who the hell are you?"
"I'm The Oracle, Miss Lance. If there's a camera, I can see you. If there's a phone number, I know it. If there's information on criminal activity, I have it."
"Are you the one giving orders to Starfire and Blackfire?"
"I'm not giving orders... just helping them do their jobs by acting as an information hub."
"So... Oracle huh? What do you want with me?"
"Blackfire met some heavies inside. If you help out here, I can help you out later. I'm not doing any work for the JLA yet, but I repay favors. We have a deal?"
Canary thought about it for a moment. Starfire was working with Batman, so that meant that Batman knew about this Oracle person. If Batman trusted whoever it was, then there was no reason why she shouldn't.
"We have a deal. Where do I go?"
Star was lighting her way with one glowing hand once again as she moved down the dark subway tunnel. It was slightly damp, and smelled of salt water and copper. As she walked further, the smell of copper grew stronger and stronger until it was almost sickening and overpowering.
It wasn't until her foot slipped and she almost lost her balance that she was able to place the smell. Looking down to her left, she the stream of blood dripping down the slight incline of the tunnel.
Following the still wet blood up and around a bend, she saw the source. A man wearing a business suit sat propped up against the wall of the tunnel, his head lolling back and his throat slit wide open. His eyes were rolled back slightly, and a look of pain and fear was etched on his face in a postmortem grimace. His briefcase lay next to him, open on the ground, the contents of it spilling out. Star knelt down and picked up a matching pen to the one she found back on the platform.
Standing slowly, she turned away from the gruesome sight, her face hardening into a sneer of anger and rage, "Monster." she growled out, her voice sounding hollow and suppressed by the concrete tunnel all around her.
"Sorry, Star, I didn't catch that." came Oracle's voice.
"Zsasz is a-" Star didn't get the rest of her proclamation out, because just then a strong hand wrapped around her face and a tazer was pressed into her neck. Normally a shock like the one being pulsed into her body wouldn't have hurt her too badly, but the it was being applied directly to her spine, and held there until she stopped struggling.
"Oh, yesss..." she heard a voice say as she began to slip away, "Yes... you're just right..."
Blackness surrounded her, and Star knew no more.
"Starfire?" Babs asked as she checked the connection status. Even underground like she was, the signal was strong enough to penetrate. Confiriming that the connection was still good, Babs tried again, "Star? Report." Still no answer, "Kori! Come on, talk to me!"
Nothing.
"Shit." she swore, and turned to Blackfire's connection, "Blackfire, you really need to finish up soon."
"I'm doing this as best I can without killing them!"
"Star might be in trouble. I need you to get out of there as quickly as possible."
"Star can take care of herself." Blackfire responded, "You have any info I can use to beat these guys?"
"Maybe... hold on I'll check." as she turned to bring up the criminal profiles on Brutal and Stallion, her eye caught something on one of the security camera screens. She gasped, "Blackfire! Behind you!"
Blackfire winced as Babs yelled in her ear, "What?" she asked as she ducked back around a corner to avoid another knife. Turning to retreat further into the facility, she ran smack into the outstretched hands of a man crackling with electricity.
Screaming as several thousand volts were blasted through her body, Blackfire was blasted back and into the wall around the corner.
"Good job, Electricutioner!" Brutal shouted as he walked up and flicked a long, thin knife out into his hand, "A simple cut should be enough to finish this job, then we can-"
He was cut off rather abruptly as Blackfire lifted her steel toed boot and slammed it up between his legs.
Brutal fell over with a squeak.
His eyes going wide, Stallion yanked out his gun again and prepared to fire it. His shot was deflected up however, as Black Canary slid between his legs on her back and kicked the gun up towards the ceiling. She spun her legs around in a circle, and kicked him twice more before ending in a crouch in front of him.
"Bet you have the knees of a jock, huh Stallion?" she asked with a grin and lashed out with one final kick while he was still too stunned to do anything. His left knee buckled in and there was a snap as he howled in pain and fell to the floor, his gun clattering across the ground.
Blackfire meanwhile, had picked herself up and charged blackbolts on her hands, "You're going to pay for ruining my hair, asshole." she growled at the Electricutioner as her eyes burned bright purple.
"Now, now..." the man dressed all in black backed up, waving his crackling hands in front of himself, "You don't want to kill me do you?"
"Hasn't anyone ever told you?" Blackfire replied with a grin, "There's so many things that are worse than death..." and she unleashed her power on him.
Black Canary watched as Blackfire blasted the sparking man down the hall with blast after blast. She was going to kill him if something wasn't done to stop her.
"Blackfire!" she screamed, "Stop it!" She made to run over and stop the alien princess herself, but a hand gripped her ankle, tripping her and slamming her into the ground.
With a grunt of pain, Canary rolled over to see Stallion holding on to her right leg. She growled at him and kicked him in the face with her other foot. He let go, but his other hand swung around and pointed another gun directly at her face.
With wide eyes, she flattened herself to the floor and felt the bullet beat air just inches above her nose. Lashing out blindly, she was satisfied when she felt her foot connect with his hand, knocking the gun away. Quickly rolling back, she pushed off her hands and landed in a crouch in front of the downed cowboy.
"Hands off the goods, buddy." she scowled and launched herself at him as he tried to sit up and push himself away from her. She caught him about the neck and slammed him back into the ground, knocking him silly.
Turning back to Blackfire, she saw that the Tameranian was no longer standing where she had been before. Quickly getting to her feet, Canary dashed down the metal hallway and around the corner.
There stood Blackfire, holding the Electricutioner off the floor by his throat, letting his feet dangle as she floated there with him. She had one of his hands in hers and was slowly bending all of his finger back until they snapped, one by one.
"Drop him, Blackfire." she took up a fighting stance.
"Who the hell are you anyway?" the black haired woman asked.
SNAP! The Electricutioner screamed.
"Black Canary. Another of Oracle's operatives."
"Oh really?" Blackfire spoke into thin air, "Oracle? Is what this woman says true?" There was a pause, then she nodded, "Very well, I wont hurt her." SNAP!
The sparking man could do little more then gasp in pain now as she squeezed his throat.
"Drop him, Blackfire, or I'll make you drop him." Canary took a threatening step forward.
"Make me? Don't make me laugh!" she did anyway.
"You asked for it." Black Canary smirked, took a deep breath, and opened her mouth.
The sonic Canary Cry focused on Blackfire's laughing face blasted the alien girl down the hall, and into one of the steel plated walls. She blinked once, shook her head, and promptly passed out.
Canary smirked and moved to attend to the Electricutioner.
When Star came to, she was kneeling on a cold concrete floor in a utility room off of the main subway line. All of the equipment had been moved off to one side or turned into tables on which hundreds of candles were lit, providing enough light to see the horrible grinning visage of a man with short blond hair and insane green eyes.
He was shirtless, holding a long, sharp knife, and had tally marks numbering in the hundreds covered every square inch of his body. There were two fresh ones on his right arm, forming a bracket of four. One more to cross and complete the set.
Star had a strong suspicion she was about to become that fifth mark.
"You're such a pretty thing. So full of life and... blood." Zsasz said in a hauntingly empty voice, "Killing you will be the completion of two hundred... you will be the one that gives me-"
He didn't get the rest out. Star wrenched at the ropes binding her arms behind her back, snapping them like they weren't there at all, and brought a fist around, smashing him in the face with it, Monster!" she screamed and knocked him halfway across the chamber.
He sat up from where he landed as she got to her feet, still shaky from being shocked so badly. He laughed a little and twirled the knife in his hand once, "I am simply acting out my true nature. I kill. It is what makes me... feel."
"You will be stopped now, Zsasz!" she shouted, and charged at him with a battle cry.
He charged right back, and they met with a punch each. Both of their heads sapped back, and Star found herself reeling from the force of his blow. He was human, she was sure, but that punch had been well placed.
Lashing out with a starbolt, she knocked him back further, and took a moment to recover. As the stars cleared from her eyes, she saw him coming back in.
Too fast. He grabbed her about the neck and slammed her sideways into a crate, burning her skin as hot wax from the candles on it poured over her face and shoulders. She cried out, and slumped to the side, brushing the burning liquid from her eyes.
She cried out again as he dragged her head back by clamping a hand over her chin and yanking. As the knife came down to finish the job, she bit down into his hand, drawing blood.
The knife skimmed the side of her neck, and she felt blood trickle out in a steady flow.
Turning quickly, she spit the blood in her mouth back into his face, blinding him long enough for her to get another shot off, blasting him back and leaving a burn mark on his chest. He climbed to his feet as she stood as well, blood running down her shoulder from the deep cut in the side of her neck.
She charged again, running as fast as she could, trying to get in under his defenses and get the knife away from him.
As fast as she was, and as strong, he saw her attack coming from a mile away. He sidestepped, still catching a punch to his ribs, but slashing down with his knife at the same time. Star staggered away with a gasp of pain, even as he was thrown back into the wall once again.
Looking down, she saw that he had sliced her wrist open vertically, a perfect cut along the artery. He blood pumped out of the wound, splashing down on the floor in large spurts.
"No..." she whispered as she stumbled back. Her strength was leaving her, "Not like this..." the combined blood loss from her neck and now her wrist was making her weak. Her vision started to blur and she tripped a bit.
"Just like this..." the killer smiled an evil smile and started to advance on her as she stumbled back and fell to her knees.
"No... please... don't... I'm... I'm scared... someone help me..." her voice was low and horse now, "Someone... Richard... help me..."
The mad man was upon her then, and he drew his knife back for a slash across her throat as she fell back further. The knife fell, and she closed her eyes.
There was a shout, a thud, and a cry of pain, followed by another loud crashing noise. Star's pain blurred mind focused suddenly and her eyes flew open.
There, crouching on the floor just five feet away from her, was Richard Grayson, dressed in dark combat fatigues and frowning over at the mad killer who had been knocked across the room and into a stack of crates.
"You're a rabid dog, Zsasz.," he said, "and I'm putting you down."
Closing notes: Yeah! Kick his ass Dick! One more part to this one, then I move on.
Reviews! Woo!
Jaina 12 - Blackfire's not too nice... and you only have to wait a little longer to see the reunion of Star and Dick!
cyberclock -My sharp eye will be upon you.Keep reading, and keep writing!
WHOCARES? - Pink Floyd will be making a return apperence later on. Keep an eye out.
ravene - Woo! Blackfire!
Fetorbolt- Whoa! Where did you come from? Have you reviewed before? More importantly, why didn'tyou review until now? I need more people to kick my ass a little here, man! Thanks tons for the constructive critisism, as well as the nice long (and very helpful) post at my LJ. You're a pal,and I really, really mean that. Thanks for your advise,and just to waylay your concerns, I do have a plan and an explination for the whole Blackfire goodness thing. It'll work, trust me. :)
Heaven's Angel - You know, I've been thinking that I might bust out some paper and a pencil and go to town trying to draw the 'new' looks I'm giving the cast here. Think is, I'm no good at drawing. If I turn out something decent, I'll make aDeviant Art accound and post it though.
Yeliak - As stated above, Blackfire's not really a good girl... just one who, well,likes a good lay. Also, you'll recall Raven and Brian's conversation of top of the Tower just after she came back to life... that they shared something special... It's just atallent of his, I guess. :)
Kokuryu - Richard did indeed show up in this chapter. I'm glad to see you're fiending for the new Titan line up already... it's a ways away yet, but you'll get a better picture of who it's going to be further into the story here.
StarryRavenFire - Why is everyone rooting for Star to beat Dick's ass? Poor kid just had to get away for a little while and all the sudden everyone is so down on him. He got BLOWN UP for crying out loud... he needed a vacation.
Nanosauromo - And still not Raven... not for a chapter or two yet, sorry.
Terra Basher - Blackfire has her reasons for helping out Star. And yeah, wouldn't it totally suck to loose the ability to fly after you had it? Man...
skweeks50 - Waiting patiently for you to tell me how much I rock again. :)
Stolen Valkyrie - Still waiting on you at the LJ... taking your sweet time, eh:) All kidding aside, thanks for the review and the kind words. I'm trying to show the influence Batman has had on Starfire. Yeah, she can barely contain her rage, but when she needs to do some detective work, she does it with style!
Arezal - I had a rock in my sock once. It hurt. Not much Starfire vengence in this chapter, but a lot of ass kicking none the less. Woo!
Next Time: Emerald Knight, Obsidion Dawn: Part 3
In which there are tender reuniouns, drag down, knock out fights, screaming matches, and one really, REALLY big shocker...