Hello boys and girls and welcome to chapter eight or part two of Rivals. Ok that was the last time I do the 'or' thing because I did it two times in a row but let me move on to reviews. Now I can tell from my hit counter that thousands of people aren't reading the story or anything but even my long term reviews have seem to ditched out on me. Maybe you're all waiting to put up your thoughts once the storyline is over but just so you know reviews make a writer happy and a happy writer writes quickly. Well I'm talking to you fine reviews I'd like to point out that I went back and re-edited my past chapters. Now if you see any mistakes in this or any other chapter please show me, it really helps more then just the story. I'm still working on my grammar and if I ever want to write on any level above paper work then tell me what is wrong with what I got. Well I think I'm done here so lets get to chapter eight shall we.
Chapter 8: Rivals: Part 2
Titan Tower was never a quiet or calm place. It has always had some form of loud something coming from it no matter what time it was and that was really one of the reasons the city put it in the middle of the harbour. The kids who live there are always ether fighting crime or each other and unluckily for people within earshot they just got back from fighting crime. But the noise that would follow the normal fight would be what truly matters. Titan Tower is about to have a little problem with some other noisy teens.
"Well that was fun," Alakazam said as she flopped down on the couch as the team got back from their escapades, "who's up for some nice pizza?"
"As long as there's no meat," Beast Lad said as he took a seat in a chair.
"How can you live without meat?" Android asked as she got close to Beast Lad's face as if to examine the weirdness that is a vegetarian. Really it was just an excuse to get close to him but still she found no meat weird, "it's unnatural."
"Not all of us are programmed to be carnivores," Black Bird said because she too was a vegetarian and she didn't like how close Android was getting to her brother.
"Yeah well, you drink herbal tea too so I don't trust your opinion when it comes to food," Android said as she shook her head.
"I enjoy herbal tea too you know," Mystic said darkly from directly behind Android. She began to quiver slightly as she smiled nervously and quickly moved away from the giant teen.
"Please, can we just settle down?" Rave said as he stood by the phone hopelessly waiting for an actual order of food, "fighting over food is ridicules."
"This coming from the guy who thinks condiments are a food group," Beast Lad said as he snickered at his leader and the rest of the team kept on arguing.
"Shut-up!" Rave suddenly said harsh enough to make everyone stop talking.
"What? I'm just saying mustard isn't meant as a form of fruit juice," Beast Lad said as he shrugged his shoulders at his leader's misinterpretation of his joke.
"No, it's not that," Rave said as he held up his arm to silence everyone and then began to strain his ears, "does anyone else hear that beeping?"
The rest of the team began to strain their hearing as well and when they did they found a low pitch beeping sound coming from Rave's direction. Black Bird was the first to spot the source of this noise and quickly yelled, "Rave, your cape!"
On Rave's cape was a very familiar flashing bomb with a G in the middle, "fire in the hole!" Rave shouted as he quickly grabbed the bomb and threw it towards the window. Those without super strength quickly ducked under a table as the other three put up their arms in defence as the bomb went off and blew out the window. A gust of sea air quickly blew into the room and made Rave's cape dance in the wind as the sound of helicopter blades could be heard.
"Knock, knock" Gadget said as he raised up to the window with his arms crossed and a large smile on his face. The others raised up from under the table as Shift quickly appeared in the middle of the room and Stretch came up and grabbed onto the windowsill as Bobcat ran up her back into the room. Stretch then snapped into the room as Gadget flew in and hovered above the Titan's heads.
"Titans Scatter!" Rave shouted as he turned and ran down the hall followed by the other Titans who quickly split up into different parts of the Tower.
Gadget only smiled as he turned his head to look back at his eager companions and said, "looks like the hunt is on." He began to laugh and quickly flew down the hall with the rest of his team as they split up after the Titans.
Alakazam stumbled around in a back room used for storage as she tried to find the light switch. It was pitch black in the room and she had ran into three different things, or it could have been the same thing three different times it was really dark. She quickly gave up on finding the switch and instead took out her wand as she whispered, "mumbo jumbo," and the end of her wand ignited with light. She quickly let out a scream as she found that Black Bird was standing right in front of her but her scream was cut off by Black Bird's hand.
"Be quiet," Black Bird whispered as she put her finger to her lips. She then got a confused look on her face as she asked, "wait, what did you just say?"
"Just some magic words," Alakazam said as she turned away from Black Bird's stare, "what are you doing here anyway? Don't you know the meaning of the word scatter?"
"I thought this would be a good place to hide," Black Bird said as she followed Alakazam so that she could share the light coming form her wand.
"And indeed it was," came a British voice from behind the two girls making them both slowly turn to see Shift's face half illuminated by the wand's light. They stood frozen for a second but Alakazam was the first to act as she blew out the wand like a candle. The room was once again pitch black and all Alakazam could hear was the sound of punches as someone was being pummelled.
Alakazam quickly ran to the side of the room and luckily found the light switch. She quickly turned it on to make sure the damage to her team-mate wasn't too bad but was shocked to find that Black Bird was standing there with her arms raised as a series of animals made of magic disappeared. "How'd you do that?" Alakazam asked the completely unharmed Black Bird.
"I did get something's from my father," Black Bird said as she began to search around the room, "I can see in the dark."
"So what happened to Shift then?" Alakazam asked as she looked around for the teleporting HIVE agent.
"Why don't you ask him?" Shift said as he stood right behind her with a fat lip and a broken lens in his goggles but most importantly a crowbar. She turned around just in time to see him bring the crowbar down and knock her out.
"Azarath Arella Azar!" Black Bird shouted in rage after seeing her friend get hit. She engulfed the crowbar that Shift held in black magic and yanked it from his hand before launching it at his head. He quickly shifted and the crowbar flew right through the image of his shifting head. He quickly appeared behind the floating Black Bird and hit her on the head knocking her out as he panted heavily.
"Two down," he said into a com link as a large grin appeared on his face.
Meanwhile Android was standing in the middle of the computer mainframe room. It was all in darkness stacked for the light coming from a huge computer that took up a whole wall. Android stood in front of this computer as she looked out at rows of computer gear stacked on top of each other in crates. "Dad was trying to make this room spooky when he designed the place," Android said as she turned around to face the large computer. There was a large conceal with many buttons but Android completely bypassed this as she shot a wire from her wrist and plugged into the computer.
Ones and zeros went by here eyes as she tried to find how HIVE had gotten past the alarm system as she stood perfectly still, completely emerged in the computer. The series of numbers stopped for a second as she heard something scurrying behind her. She quickly turned around and looked around and searched the room with her scanners before turning back and exploring the computer again. She heard something again and quickly turned around, this time giving up on her search as she pulled her cable out from the computer.
"Ok who's there?" She said as she looked behind one of the crates as she tried to find which of the HIVE students was in the room with her.
"You know the good thing about facing a full robot?" Gadget said as he steeped out from behind a crate and stood right in front of her. For some reason Android kept looking around trying to find where the voice was coming from. "I can be invisible to sensors and that's all you are," he laughed as he moved behind her and flipped down the panel in her back.
"Hey! Get out of there!" Android said as she moved her arms behind herself in an attempt to hit the intelligent HIVE agent. He simple moved out of the way of her arms as he began to type wildly.
"I wonder if this counts as getting to second base?" Gadget laughed as Android's arms stopped moving and went to her side. Android head then turned down as the blue liquid left the tubes in her body turning them grey. Gadget looked around for another second before smiling widely and speaking into his com, "Robo-Cop makes three."
Beast Lad hid behind a couch in a spare room, the room had nothing important in it just a bed a table and the couch that Beast Lad now hid behind. But Beast Lad wasn't worrying about the room he was worrying about what he was going to do next. The Titans were still new and their battle plans weren't that well thought out yet. In fact even though Beast Lad hadn't really been paying attention at the one battle meeting they had he was pretty sure 'Titans Scatter' was improvised. He heard the door open and looked under the couch to see a pair of cat feet walk into the room.
"I know you're in here," Bobcat said as she began to slowly move around the room like a wild cat hunting her prey. She grabbed the couch suddenly and flipped it over with her increased strength but a look of confusion came to her face as she found nothing. The confusion left her face though as she saw a green snake tail move under the bed.
"You think you're smart don't you?" Bobcat asked as she sat down on the flipped over couch, "and you really are. You see, when all the other's were playing dead, pretending to be defeated you actually succeeded," she said as she stood slowly. She then moved across the room over to the bed and smiled, "maybe they'll let me keep you as a pet," she then turned over the bed but once again found nothing as a small fly flew between her legs.
"In that case," Beast Lad said as he turned back to normal behind her. She quickly turned around and bared her teeth as Beast Lad finished, "I should be able to beat you again." Beast Lad then turned into a wolf and quickly jumped onto Bobcat as both began to struggled and clawed and bite at each other.
Down the hall Mystic and Rave were just standing out in the open as they both couldn't find a place to hide. They hadn't been able to find any of the others and both stood at a three way intersection in the hall. "Do you think everyone's alright?" Rave asked as he glanced up at the large Titan.
Mystic nodded silently as he looked down a hall but just at that moment Stretch's upper half came around the corner. "How lucky am I," Stretch said as she quickly came barrelling down the hallway, "two handsome boys, all to myself."
"Run!" Rave shouted as he and Mystic both took off down one hallway as Stretch turned the corner and was quickly catching up to them. Rave took to the air and tuned around and began to fire rave-bolts as he flew backwards. Mystic did the same as he ran backwards and fired off jinxes but Stretch moved out of the way of all of them as Mystic's jinxes smashed windows and made doors fall off there hinges behind her.
"This is pointless," Mystic shouted just as the door beside him came crashing down on top of him as both Beast Lad and Bobcat slammed into the other side of it. The hit of the door knocked out the giant.
"Sorry," Beast Lad said as he turned back to normal but was quickly silenced by a punch from Bobcat that knocked him out. Rave was still in the air so he wasn't hit by the door but he paused for a second too long and Stretch caught him. She quickly wrapped herself around Rave and squeezed tight enough to knock him out.
"What happened?" Rave asked as he regained conscience and tried to put a hand to his head but found his hands were bound to his side by rope. He and the rest of the team sat in a circle all tied together with only Rave, Black Bird and Alakazam conscience. The HIVE laughed at them from where they were all standing in the kitchen, the Titans tied up in the living room.
"Don't bother trying to struggle," Gadget laughed as he moved up close to the Titans. Alakazam quickly flicked out her wrist instead of struggling and her wand popped out into her hand. She pointed it at the chains but stopped as Gadget said, "and it's magic proof too so don't even bother."
"Oh come on," Alakazam complained as she slumped down as much as she could tied up the way she was.
"In fact?" Gadget said as he reached down and quickly snatched the wand out of Alakazam's hand, "I think I'll take this as a souvenir."
"My wand!" Alakazam shouted as the blue started to empty from her face like emptying bottle of water as it turned from blue to Caucasian and her hair went from white to blond.
"I think these guys need a bath," Gadget said as he turned around and smiled at Shift who quickly hoped off the counter and moved over to the Titans, "Shift, would you do the honours?"
"My pleasure," Shift said as he grabbed onto the rope and shifted away, he appeared outside high above the harbour and let go of the rope as everyone began to fall towards the water, "See you all later," Shift laughed as he shifted away in midair. The Titan's all hit the water and quickly began to sink to the bottom.
They all began to struggle as they held their breath and it was only then that Android systems rebooted due to the water and she made a small saw pop out of her wrist and cut the rope. The Titans all swam towards the surface and quickly emerged. Beast Lad had woken up with the others when they hit the water and reached the surface first as a fish.
"Is everyone alright?" he shouted out once the others had risen to the surface.
"I think only our pride is hurt," Mystic said as he began to swim towards shore but quickly stopped when Black Bird screamed.
"Wait where's Rave?" Black bird said as she quickly ducked under the water but came back up having found nothing.
"We'll worry about that once we get to shore," Alakazam shouted as she and everyone else began to swim towards another small island in the harbour. Black Bird looked around for a second longer before quietly following the others.
They all slowly drudged up onto the shore of the small island that only contained a small rock and beach. They flopped down on the beach and Mystic took up the rock as he bowed his head in defeat. Android began to drain out her systems and Black Bird paced nervously as Alakazam tipped her top hat over and water came pouring out. "I can't even pull a rabbit out of my hat," Alakazam said as she stared into the empty accessory that used to hold so many wonderful things.
"Rave hasn't popped up yet," Black Bird said as she bit her finger nails and began to pace across the small piece of land faster and faster.
"How are we going to come back from this?" Beast Lad asked himself as he looked down at his feet and tried to concentrate. He was interrupted though by the sound of Android's dark laughter from beside him.
"Don't you get it? We lost," Android said as the water running down her face looked suspiciously like tears, "our leaders gone, we've been thrown from our own tower and to top it off one of our most powerfully members just lost her powers. This is just like the story our parents told us about the first time they faced the HIVE."
"And we all know how that ends," said a voice from behind the depressed teens as they all turned around to look at where the voice was coming from. It was Rave with his hands on his hips as he floated right in front of the sun making it gleam off him heroically. "I have a plan."