My eyes flared emerald as the volley of yellow energy flew at us. I quickly cut loose a 180 degree Ultima blast.
The wave of magical destruction absorbed the deadly bolts.
Robin looked at the wall behind us, "Cyborg, can you make us a door?"
Cyborg nodded then drove his fist through the face of the building behind us, leaving a sizable hole.
"Titans…Fall back!"
Four Titans ran through the hole, leaving me and Robin.
"Go!" he yelled.
I nodded, then shove him through the hold, before he could so much as protest I cast a bolt of lightning into the building face causing the hole to collapse.
"Shadow!" Robin yelled through the rubble, "What do you think you are doing?"
"Get out of here, I'll hold 'em off."
With a flux of gravity I shot into the air, and kicked off the building face, flying towards my sword.
"Fire fire fire!" screamed Mod. The British machines opened fire on my soaring form.
Expertly twisting and rolling in midair, I managed to dodge the hail of yellow destruction.
I hit the side of the building, about a story above where my sword was lodged in the wall.
I slid down the wall, and landed on the hilt, then threw my weight forward with my feet locked around the sword.
The blade slid free of the wall, still held in my feet, as I rolled forwards into a front flip.
Halfway through the flip I let go of the hilt and let the sword freefall.
I finished the rotation, my hands grabbing onto my trusted weapon.
A cold glint formed in my eyes as I dropped blade first into a robot, the freefall speed splitting the mechanical redcoat in two
'Alright, gotta buy the titans enough time to get away.'
"Rrrauugghh!" I twirled with the blade, impossibly deflecting several yellow bolts into the sky. I rushed the line of soldiers closest to me, ducked one shot, hurdled another, then split a third in two with my sword.
Then I was among them, I spun and slashed at anything and everything within range. I knew I couldn't possibly take them all, but it might just draw Mad Mod's attention off of the Titans
I whirled to block another attack, parrying the butts of three rifles against my sword.
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Robin rushed through the double doors out into the street joining the other four Titans, "Let's go."
"Whoa," called Cyborg, "What about Shadow?"
Robin's face darkened, "He stayed behind."
A collective "WHAT?" sounded from everyone.
"He's trying to buy us some time to get out of here, I suggest we use it."
"Ohh" said Starfire, clasping her hands together, "I do not like leaving our friend to face Mod to the Mad alone."
"Star," Robin stated, "We don't have a choice, let's go!"
The five Titans turned and ran down the road, headed for Titan's Tower.
"Now now kiddies." sounded Mod's voice, "Don't think I'll be letting you get away so easily."
The Titans looked up to see Mod's grinning face on a huge TV screen above them.
The Brit laughed insanely as a flight of aircraft came down dropping off more soldiers.
Cyborg grabbed the girl's still enchanted rifle and opened fire.
"Fall back!" yelled Robin.
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WHAM
I flew back into a wall courtesy of a steel backhand, dropped to the ground, then came up in a roll.
I quickly shook the cobwebs out, then wiped off the blood on my mouth.
I looked up, then jumped straight up to dodge an incoming fist.
Landed on the robot's arm, and swung my sword like a golf club; removing the machine's head.
I dropped behind the beheaded robot, using it as a shield.
My eyes flickered yellow as I reached out with magical senses to find my team; they were under attack and on the run, but they were ok, for now. But more importantly, they had gotten far enough away.
I took a deep breath, then looked out from behind my improvised protector.
The Ultima charged rifle was still sitting right where I had dropped it, on the far side of a veritable jungle of mechanized Brits.
I rolled my eyes and charged into their midst; knocked one back with my sword, rolled between another's legs, only to come up face to face with a fist aimed for my head.
Instinct took over, my eyes flashed, and a crimson rush surrounded me.
I blurred into motion at inhuman speeds, ducking the fist, and sliding around behind the machine, my sword flashed at it's back, and my increased speed gave the blade just the boost it needed, I split the machine in two at the waist.
Immediately I threw myself into a backflip over another one, beheading it in the process.
Dodging, attacking, and blurring, I quickly moved towards my dropped gun.
I finally reached it, scooped it up, then dove behind some rubble for cover.
I did manage to destroy quite a few of these lousy machines, but they just didn't stop coming, I had to clear a path for my escape.
I tore a panel off the side of the gun, and quickly rewired a few things.
I immediately tossed the enchanted weapon over the rubble and into the arms of a waiting robot.
I wasted no time and blurred right up the side of a building.
All the mechanized soldiers shifted their fire to my running figure
The one machine holding the shimmering rifle, looked at it for a second, then took aim, and squeezed the trigger.
The world seemed to click into slow motion, the enchanted power cell released a pulse of energy that traveled down the wiring inside, then due to my job on it, back into the power cell…overloading it.
The cell blazed a blinding white, then exploded, eradicating everything near it, including the very air around it.
Air rushed back into this miniature vacuum with explosive force, the combined blast effectively cleared the street.
I looked back at my handiwork, smirked, then concentrated. My eyes shone yellow as I scanned for my target……………..found it.
I launched myself into motion, jumping rooftop to rooftop.
As soon as I landed on a larger building, Mad Mod's face appeared on a screen across the street.
"Now now young chap, is that any way to treat your elders? Let's see how you fare against some of these." he said in that increasingly annoying voice.
As he finished speaking, I found something else to think about, an entire squadron of fighter craft swooped at me; the barrels of their guns began to glow.
"Oh, that's just great."
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The five Titans stood back in an alleyway panting.
"We seem to have lost them." Stated Robin.
Raven stood off to the side…kind of, she was bent over holding her stomach, "Need gasp to exercise pant more."
Cyborg looked down at the rifle in his hands, "I think Shadow's magic just wore off."
The team looked solemnly at the no longer glowing weapon.
Raven finally caught her breath, "This. Is just. Great."
Robin slipped over to the edge of the alley, and carefully looked out, then immediately pulled his head back in, and shuffled back to the rest of the Titans, "I don't know where they are all coming from, but the streets are crawling with Mod's robots."
Beast Boy slumped to the ground, "Aw man, no matter how many of these things we take down, ten more show up to take their place."
"So…" Starfire said slowly, "We are to go directly to the Mad Mod?"
"Yeah," replied Robin calmly, "But me and Cyborg are going in alone, we can't put you three in danger again."
"What," Asked Raven coldly.
"You heard me."
"No way man," stated Beast Boy.
"I don't want you to get hurt," Robin returned, his mask narrowing.
Raven glared daggers at the Boy Wonder, "When we joined the Titans, we all understood the risk, we should all stay."
Robin returned the glare, "The three of you return to the Tower, that's an order."
Cyborg looked up from the screen on his arm, "Sorry Robin, but that ain't possible." Everyone stared at him blankly, so he continued. "I managed to get a signal through to the Tower through all of Mod's interference. It's surrounded by robots, the defenses are holding them out, but there is no way we can get close to it."
Robin looked around for a second, "Well, since you can't get back to the tower, I want the three of you to stay here, and stay out of sight, got it?" Without waiting for an objection, he ascended the building behind them, by grappling hook, while Cyborg followed closely by a cable launched hand.
As soon as they reached the top, the android looked back down, "Isn't that a little dangerous man? I mean leavin the three of them alone without their powers."
Robin looked back, "Don't worry, we'll cause enough trouble to draw the entire army in to fight us, they'll be fine. Now let's go, we need to find Mad Mod." With that he took off, bounding rooftop to rooftop, in classic caped crusader style.
Cyborg took one last tentative glance back at the alley, then followed.
Pow Pow Pow PowI sprinted at breakneck speed, running like crazy from an entire squadron of aircraft.
As I cleared a broad road with a Demi-enhanced leap, I looked down to see ranks upon ranks of the mechanized brits. I hit the building on the other side of the road full tilt, and looked up over my shoulder at the pursuing craft, then smirked as an idea hit me.
I took a deep breath, then gravity fluxed throwing me straight into the air, rolling into a backflip that landed me right on top the cockpit of the lead aircraft. The cybernetic pilot looked up at me, human sized and shaped…perfect.
I smiled cheerfully, waved, then unlatched the hatch and grabbed the machine by the shoulders and pulled, it lifted slightly then stopped.
I almost smacked myself, then popped off its restraints, and tossed it over the side of the plane.
I dropped into the cockpit, pulled the hatch shut, strapped myself in, then looked down at completely foreign controls… "Crap."
My eyes fluttered as I recalled the pilot when it had been in here, 'let's see, it's hands were here…and here.' I grabbed on to the joystick and throttle, then looked up, straight at the face of a skyscraper, "Aww, DOUBLE CRAP!"
I yanked hard on the control stick, sending the plane into a tight series of barrel rolls that narrowly missed the building. I yanked back the other direction, sending it into a roll in the other direction. Now moving carefully, I moved the stick back in its original direction very slowly, until the aircraft leveled, then I pulled back on the stick slowly, bringing the nose up.
I quickly glanced back behind me to see the rest of the squadron starting to close in on me, 'Oh well, no more time for experimentation.'
My eyes glowed yellow as I scanned the plane nose-to-tail, analyzing everything it was capable of. As my eyes faded back to normal, I grinned and dove, just as the pursuing aircraft opened fire.
I swooped around a skyscraper, and shot straight into the air, climbing like a homesick Angel.
In mid climb, I killed all power to the throttle, and jammed down hard on the left rudder. As the plane stalled, it rotated tightly ending up facing right back at the aircraft that had been chasing me. I slammed the throttle back to full and rocketed straight at them.
My eyes narrowed, and my finger squeezed around the trigger.
Bl-bl-bl-bl-bl-bl-bl-bl-blam…BOOM
The lead fighter erupted into a ball of fire, just as my plane reached it, tearing through the inferno, then diving towards the city.
The remaining ten fighters looped around and tried to fall back in on my tail.
I glanced behind me, "Alright, lets see how good of pilots you hunks of metal really are."
I dropped into a broad road, barely above the level of car roofs. In front of me, I saw a massive crowd of people running towards me, abandoning shops, vehicles, anything.
I looked a little further down the road and saw why; a line of Mod's robots were advancing down the road, firing away at anything that moved, and many a thing that didn't. To cap it all off, above everything was a massive laughing babbling Mad Mod on an overlooking Television.
My face twisted into a snarl as I squeezed the trigger again.
Bl-bl-bl-bl-bl-bl-blam
The string of hot energy flowed into the line of machines ripping them apart.
My trailers, in response, opened up on me with their guns.
I kicked into impulse again, standing the plane on its right wing and shot down a narrow alley, riding the left rudder to keep the nose up.
I chanced a glance behind me to see two of the aircraft slam full on into the buildings, and a third try to imitate my maneuver, but didn't use the rudder, so it plummeted hard into the pavement, all three exploded brilliantly.
The other seven pulled up hard clearing the buildings, and followed me from above.
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Beast Boy poked his green head out from behind the dumpster that he and the girls had just had to use as an impromptu shield.
He had to blink a few times as he found himself staring at the flaming nose of an aircraft that had skidded to a stop merely ten feet away from their hiding place.
"Whoa…"
Starfire looked timidly around him at the burning mess, "It is most un-normal for Terren aircraft to hit buildings or fall from flight, yes?"
Raven looked calmly at the wreckage as she stepped out from behind the dumpster too, "Yes Starfire, planes are not supposed to crash like that."
"Then why did they perform such an action?"
"I don't know, nothing was chasing them………unless…"
Beast Boy's gaze finally fell away from the inferno, "Unless what Rae?"
She ignored his use of her shortened name for now, "Unless they were chasing something, that lead plane made it through, how could that one do something that none of the others could." Her eyes widened at the sudden realization.
"Uh, lucky robot?" asked Beast Boy.
Raven gave him a very blank look, "What?"
"Maybe the robot got lucky."
Raven rolled her eyes, "So that's why the other ones were shooting at it?"
"Okaaay, an unlucky lucky robot."
"Idiot."
"HEY!"
Raven ignored his retort, "They were chasing it because it wasn't one of their own, someone took one of Mod's planes, and is using it against him…"
Starfire suddenly looked away from the remains of the craft and back at the other two, "Friends? I believe we have more immediate things to be performing the worrying about."
"Huh?" responded Beast Boy and Raven in unison.
Star just pointed.
Past the dying flames, a group of the British machines had entered the alley.
"Target Scanning…" the lead machine spoke flatly, "Targets three through five located, Raven, Beast Boy, Starfire. Directive: Engage."
As one, the machines raised their rifles and took aim.
"Great," droned Raven.
Beast Boy whistled at the two girls, "Come on, this way." He yanked open a door on the side of the alley.
The two girls rushed in, Beast Boy following close behind, shutting the door behind them.
The lead machine's voice echoed through the door after them, "Pursue and apprehend targets."