I need another disclaimer here:
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Teen Titans, or Halo 2, but I do own Zero.
Well, it's been a long time since you guys have seen my ass around here, huh? Well, spring break came, and now I can stay up till four writing.
Picking up right where I left off…
The first part of the day that followed was rather uneventful. Zero stayed to his room, fixing the, as he put it, "un-fucking-necessary" hole in the ceiling, and putting up the "God damned muffling."
The other guys stuck to the living room, playing games, and Starfire stayed to watch. Well, not really, just to be around the guys. Well, Robin anyway.
Raven just wandered between her room and Zero's, pretending not to check out his progress, or his scarred body.
As he hefted the last piece of muffling into place and hammering it down with a view nails, he sighed; his task was done. "Now to test this stuff," he said to himself with a grim smirk on his face.
His gaze wandered to his drums. 8 maple drums, composed of 2 bass drums, 1 snare, and 5 toms, and 8 cymbals on top of that gave him goose bumps. He suppressed the feeling, though it was rather pointless.
He began to close his door, but as he did Raven walked by.
"I see you've got it all up," she said to him.
"Finally," he groaned. "Mother fuckers were the same amount of fun to put up as it is getting teeth pulled."
"That bad, huh?"
He looked at her harshly. Than he glanced at his gashed up right hand. "Yes. Yes they were."
"I'm guessing you were about to test the muffling."
"I'm planning to."
"If its not going to involve gunshots, can I watch?"
"If you want," he said, opening his door.
She sat on his bed getting a daytime view of his room as he took up the throne (or drumming seat, to those not literate to drums). He grabbed sticks and earplugs out of a box.
He offered two plugs to Raven. "You're gonna want these. You only have one set of ears."
She hastily put them in.
Zero glanced around his drums once, and them seemed to lose focus on the world. His eyes went lazy, unfocused on everything, gazing past the hardware of the drums.
Then he raised his arms and gritted his teeth.
The first note struck Raven like a bus. She clapped hands over her ears, gritted her teeth as well, and squinted at the noise. She observed in amazement as Zero's hands turned to a blur, and he continued to gaze lazily past everything in the world. To him it seemed, all that mattered was he and his drums.
His hand and his feet were moving fast enough to sound like a machine gun with different toned firings. Raven strained to track his movements.
He played and played, while his sticks took the punishment of a lifetime. One stick wasn't up to the challenge, and snapped in half. Splinters flew everywhere.
'Is it over?' she thought. 'Can I unplug my ears now?'
Surely since his stick broke, he would stop and rest…
Rule number fucking one for drummers: NEVER stop playing.
Zero continued to play single handedly as he threw the broken stick away, reached down to a bag, grabbed another, and continued to rock.
Raven began to wonder what kind of material the drumheads were made of as his other stick broke and he grabbed another.
Zero practically fought gravity and air resistance for more speed. But physics kept a firm hold on him. He began to sweat, which dripped on his drums, and he clenched his eyes shut with force, still fighting the elements for more acceleration.
She could see it; he was wearing down. But she looked at the clock on his wall
His right hand began to bleed, dribbling his stick red, and his left arm began to leak hydraulic fluid. Blood fell on his drums, mixing with sweat, and sprayed off in a mist when played on. Soon, everything within a two- meter radius was damp.
Finally he came to the finale, hitting every single piece in ultra fast succession, as blood flew off of his hands onto the walls, onto his cymbals, onto himself, and even Raven.
The last note finally came, and the sheer brute force of it shattered both his sticks and knocked over the cymbals he hit.
Panting, Zero looked around to Raven, who was white-knuckling her ears. He allowed a subtle laugh.
"Yes, its over."
"Yo, what kinda train wreck happened in there?" Cyborg's voice boomed through the door.
Zero opened the door, while Raven eased her hands off of her ears.
"Was my drum solo really that loud?"
"Hell yeah it was! We can't even hear our game over this! And the volume is all the way up!"
"I'll take that as a compliment." Zero said wiping his bloodied hands on his winter camouflage pants.
"Well, now that you're done, we need an extra dude for a game. And I ain't askin'. After that whole bit, you gonna be fourth player."
"Fine, fine. But I'm not putting up more muffling,"
"Whatever, just get your drummer-ass downstairs."
Cyborg grabbed Zero by the shirt and flung him down the hallway.
Raven noticed that Cyborg was treating Zero with a little hostility, granted less than the first day he was here, but still hostility. Cyborg did always act like a big brother to Raven, so maybe he was doing it now. She smiled slightly. "I knew he'd want to do this. Just getting to know Zero I guess."
Zero took a seat on the couch in the living room. He spotted a running Xbox and aluminum casing of a game that boasted a large blue number two on the front encircled by a broken circle in the same color. The side of the box read "Halo 2."
"Halo?" Zero said under his breath. He looked up to the giant screen T.V. Sure enough; a giant logo read "HALO 2."
"Okay Zero, make your character." Cyborg chucked him a controller. He caught it and did the best he could to not look like a buffoon.
He made his way to the profile customization screen, and made his character. All black, or "Steel" as the game suggested, and a white number zero for an emblem, he saved his profile.
"Alright," Cyborg began as he regained control of the game. "The name of the game is deathmatch. No teams, no alliances, no secret crushes or any shit like that. Just blow the shit out of each other. Easy."
Zero took a look at his controller. 14 buttons, 14 possible actions, he thought. Learn damn quick.
The game commenced and Zero was set somewhere inside of what looked to be a box canyon, now way in or out, with two separate outposts at opposite ends of the canyon. The cliffs of rock were so red, one might say they were covered in blood.
"Blood Gulch." Zero said.
"Yeah, they changed the name from the original to Coagulation. Kinda sucks," Beast Boy said as he attempted to dodge a rocket, failing miserably.
Zero glanced at him, confused. "Right," he mumbled.
Zero ran around with an SMG type weapon, looking for more gutsy weaponry. He found an assault rife with a scope standing up against a wall in one of the outposts, and on the other end of the building, a sniper's rifle. He picked it up and oriented himself with it.
"So Zero, got the hang of this yet?" Robin asked as he served out dual-wielded SMG power.
Before saying a word, Zero pulled the trigger, landing a 14.5mm, fin-stabilized slug in Robin's visor - from across the map.
"Yeah," He said, watching Robin's body drop. "I think I got it."
Robin stared wide-eyed at his man's corpse.
"Well to can play at this game," Cyborg said as he also picked up a sniper's rifle. But before he could even use the zoom function, let alone pull the trigger, Zero put a shell through the scope of Cyborg's rifle. Cyborg's character did a back flip as the rifle fell to the ground.
"Two can play, but only one wins." Zero reloaded his rifle.
"Well now, Zero, look behind you…" Robin said evilly.
Zero took evasive action, sidestepping to the right, throwing a grenade at his feet, and jumping off the outpost.
Before Robin knew what happened, his man went flying the opposite way, filled with shrapnel. His shields flared and dissipated, but He wasn't dead, or that is, until Zero spun around mid air with the assault rifle. Zero pulled the rigger and a three round burst tore through Robin's neck.
Robin sank down in his seat. Zero reloaded his rifle.
Zero remained silent and ran toward a group of trees. He met Beast Boy who was pinning down Cyborg with a hail of fire from the rear-gunner position of a jeep. The gun was a chaingun of massive caliber that shower the ground with spent brass. Zero delivered his rifle butt to Beast Boy's spine.
"What the-? Ohhh, dude! That's not fair!" Beast Boy yelled, bewildered as his man slumped off of the jeep to the dirt.
"Yeah well at least he got you offa me," Cyborg said, relieved. "Thanks man."
"Hold your thanks," Zero mumbled.
"Why should I- oh." Cyborg ate dirt as his non-shielded body took a three round burst to the head. "You son of a…"
"Payback time Zero!" Robin said, getting a grin on his face. He picked up a rocket launcher from a few yards away and fired. The launcher belched out a rocket that screamed toward Zero. Zero ran toward it.
"Are you insane? Dude, get outa there!" Beast Boy yelled.
Zero sidestepped at the last second and the rocket flew past. He then his crosshairs turned red on Robin and opened up. Three round bursts pelted Robin's shield as he fired another rocket. But this time, he aimed a Zero's feat, hoping to get him in the ensuing explosion.
"Crap!" Zero barked. He jumped as the rocket detonated, but the blast was enough to overload his shielding. He was wide open.
"Reload faster, reload faster…" Robin repeated, hastily back pedaling away from the airborne Zero, but he didn't get far enough. Zero came down on Robin's head with a punishing blow with his rifle. His shields low, Robin finally reloaded and looked up. Zero was in his face.
"Damn, I can't fire!" Robin furiously tried to shake Zero who was at point black range. Should Robin fire, they would both die.
But this was not the case for Zero. He had no explosive weapons. Zero raised his rifle to Robins orange visor and pulled the trigger. Blood, brains, and bits of both armor and bone sprayed the rock Robin had backed himself into. The rocket launcher fell from Robin's hands, and Robin's man slammed into the rocked then fell forward onto the floor.
Zero reloaded his rifle.
"Okay," Beast Boy started. "Now that we know that Zero is the king of Halo, what do we wanna do now?"
Everyone remained silent until Starfire spoke up. "Why do we not just commence in the action of 'hanging-out'?"
"Too late, Star," Robin said gloomily.
"Well, we can't sit here and do nothin' all day," Cyborg said. "I'd go insane!"
"Well, let's ask the newb. Whad do you wanna do, Zero?" Beast Boy said.
Zero looked at them, and they stared back at him, as if he was supposed to be delivering a life altering speech. "I don't know," he said. "I'm good at shooting the crap out of stuff. What on your list things to do involves shooting the crap out of stuff?"
Suddenly, an alarm began to blare throughout the tower.
"We've got trouble!" Robin said, leaping up to a keypad next to the T.V. "It looks like your going to get your chance to do just that, Zero."
"Way ahead of you," Zero was already up off the couch, Desert eagle in his right hand. With his left, he cocked it, and his left eye lit up with blue, and he smirked grimly. "I love my job."
Well, it's been a long time since you guys have seen my ass around here, huh? Well, spring break came, and now I can stay up till four writing. enjoy