Hello boys and girls and welcome to chapter thirteen of The New Teen Titans. Well last chapter was a talking chapter so I didn't expect many reviews but what I got was excellent so I will respond to those I can respond to. Mysticmagicmage, thank you for pointing out that mistake please continue doing so if you see any more and I'll watch that 'an, a' thing. Neko Saphira, could you clear that up a little I mean I don't mind reviews that just say things like 'cool : )' but was 'Who!' a question or an exclamation. I mean was it suppose to mean something or am I just looking into this to much in which case sorry because this sounds stupid. Alright well that's all I have to say for now so without further ado here's chapter thirteen of The New Teen Titans.
Chapter 13: X's and O's: End
Jump City park is one of the many tourists attraction in the technology filled city. Perhaps not the most popular attraction amongst actually tourist but a favourite of the citizens themselves. Beautifully trees around well placed walkways and space cleared out for baseball and soccer fields for people to play in, a playground with swings and slides for the smaller children and even a place for skateboarders. But right now it is not the park that matters but the people who are in it, the Teen Titans. With Android leading the way, occasionally looking at her arm for directions as the rest of the Titans following behind her looking for their missing team-mates.
"Here," Android said as she stopped on what appeared to be a random spot near the playground and slightly off the stone walkway. The rest of the team looked around the basically empty area where only a few people were walking paying minor attention to their city's protectors.
"Great, another trick," Rave said as he silently cursed himself for following the signal and wasting more time on another wild goose chase.
"No, wait," Android said as she tapped the grid on her arm and it turned making it into a cube shaped grid that showed on the top of the cube dots that had the letters R, AN, AL and M in them and a little bit below them the two dots that belonged to Beast Lad and Black Bird. "They're under us," Android said as she tapped her arm again and the grid disappeared into her arm.
"Alright lets find a manhole cover then," Rave said as he clapped his hands together and began to lead the Team out of the park.
"Wait," Alakazam said making the team stop and turn to her, "allow me," she said as she turned to face a birdbath a little ways down the trail. It was a simple birdbath with the design of some vines climbing up the side. Alakazam pointed her wand at it and waited till the small bird flew out of it before shouting, "Abra Kadabra!" and a jolt of blue energy shot from her wand and hit the birdbath. The birdbath then became liquefied and turned into water collapsing into the ground and becoming a puddle of swirling water. "After you," She said with a smile as she led the Titans over to the vortex.
The team just looked at it for a second before Rave said, "alright," and jumped in with a small splash. Android followed suit with a shrug and then Mystic jumped in as well, getting stuck slightly due to his size but he was able to wiggle through.
"Cannonball!" Alakazam shouted when she was the only left above ground and followed suit by jumping into the pool of water with a splash. As the splash came up it turned to stone and became the exact shape the birdbath had been.
The team all landed completely dry on a small walkway going along a sewer pipe that had sewage and other things best left unknown floating down it. "Which way?" Rave asked Android who was busy trying to find a way to turn off her smell sensors.
"Oh, just around here," Android said as she began to lead the team down the small path towards a turn in the pipe.
"Alright guys be quiet," Rave whispered as the team turned the corner, "we could be walking into anything right now, like…" with that Rave paused as he saw just what was around the corner, "…like that."
A large clearing in the sewer was being patrolled by dozens of those gasmask wearing robots all walking in military fashion. In the centre of this clearing was a large bomb that looked just like Professor Chaos had said it would, a blown up version of the battery that powered Red X's gun. The hole that opened in order for it to be filled was now closed but a conveyer belt with some zinothium on it was leading to a large container full of the red substance. The Titans stood in the only entrance to the room but far above their heads was a balcony that housed a single gasmask wearing robot who looked over everything. He was the one to spot them and as soon as he did every robot in the room simultaneously turned their heads towards the teens and powered up their tridents.
"Titans Go!" Rave shouted out when the robots charged them and all but Mystic flew in different directions. Mystic just stood there, unmoving with his cloak wrapped completely around him and his hood down. Just when it looked too late he flipped his head up and his cloak blew open revealing his bulging muscles as he ran forward, knocking down the robots like they were bowling pins.
"Can you see Beast Lad or Black Bird?" Alakazam asked as she sent spell after spell at the guards below her but most of her spells were being avoided.
"Not unless they're in the huge bomb," Android said as one of the gasmask wearing guards jumped up to an impossible height to grab onto her leg. She let out a screech as she pointed her cannon at him and fired a ball on sonic energy which got him off her leg but also blew off his gasmask revealing his clearly robotic face. It had no ears and beeping lights were all over it including the eyes that were just two red lights and its mouth looked like it was smiling the worlds biggest more disturbing smile. The robot fell to the ground and Android raised an eyebrow shouting, "I think these guys are robots."
"Good," Mystic said as a few of the robots surrounded him, "I like robots," with that he went into a low fighting stance and sent out waves of hexes at the guards who all stopped dead in their tracks. Mystic stood up straight and waited a moment until they all twitched slightly and sparks flew from their joints before they all simultaneously exploded. He then began to run forward and leaped over parts of the robots so that he could send hexes at others.
"Remained me not to get on his bad side," Android said as she paused in her fighting to look at the destruction that Mystic was causing.
"Look over there," Rave shouted as he pointed to Black Bird's and Beast Lad's communicators that were duct taped to the bomb. He flew down and ripped them off sending rave-bolts at the robots to keep them away from him as he did, "this was another trap."
"Then where are they?" Alakazam asked as she was distracted by a robot jumping up onto her card and stabbing at her with its trident. She side stepped it and glared at the robot before making the card zip back into her pocket. Both the robot and Alakazam stayed floating in midair though and even the robot looked down in disbelief before looking back up at Alakazam. She shrugged and with that the robot feel to the ground with a loud boom as the card came back out of Alakazam's pocket and back under her feet.
Rave ripped through a guard before pausing to answer Alakazam with a half growled, "that's what I want to know."
Back across town Beast Lad had just busted down the door to free Black Bird, Red X and himself to find that they were still at the docks. They were in a warehouse that had nothing in it except for the room they had just been in that looked like it was built separately from the warehouse. That and a table in the middle of the room that had Red X's gun sitting on it and two communicators. "Shouldn't there be guards or something?" Beast Lad asked as he scanned the empty room.
"He thinks he's already won," Red X said as she too was scanning the room with her sensors to find the same thing as Beast Lad, no one was around.
"Look," Black Bird shouted as she ran to the table, "they left our spare communicators," she finished as she grabbed her com-link off the table and Beast Lad ran up to grab his. "They left your, um, gun too," Black Bird said as she held up the weapon.
It began to shake and then flew out of her hand and onto Red X's waist, "thanks," Red X said without any sarcasm in her voice but her body langue showed that she was holding back.
"Let's call Rave and see if he knows about this bomb yet," Beast Lad said as he dialled in Rave's frequency. The screen blurred for a second as Black Bird and Red X gathered behind him before Rave appeared on the screen fighting three of the robot guards.
"I think he knows?" Red X said as Rave fought off one of the guards and then grabbed the trident of another, stabbing him with it as he took care of the last one with a rave-bolt to the face at point blank range.
"Black Bird! Beast Lad! Is that you?" Rave asked as he noticed who was on his communicator, "where are you guys?"
"We're still at the dock," Beast Lad said as Rave flew up into the air to avoid fighting while he was talking, "where are you?"
"Under the park," Rave said as suddenly there was a loud mechanical hiss from behind him and the doors to the bomb opened as the conveyer belt began to move and dump zinothium in like coal into a furnace.
"That must be the bomb," Beast Lad said to himself as he looked over Rave's shoulder and tried to study it.
"Thank you Captain Obvious, what would we do without you?" Red X said very sarcastically as she rolled her eyes at the green skinned hero.
Beast Lad growled slightly and didn't have time to ask Rave anything before Black Bird took the communicator from him and forgot to be nervous and bashful telling Rave, "we'll be their as quick as possible," before shutting off the communicator.
"Let's go then," Beast Lad said as he took his com-link back and grew a set of wings, flying off towards where Rave had said he was.
Black Bird took off as well to find that Red X was still running along the ground, "why aren't you flying?"
"I can only maintain short bursts of flight," Red X said and without another thought Black Bird made a large pterodactyl out of black magic swoop her up making Red X silently say, "thanks."
"How long until the bomb goes off?" Black Bird asked as she ignored the sign of gratitude to ask about the more important matter.
"Not long enough," Red X said and without another word they both picked up speed.
The three formerly missing teens arrived at that park at the same time and quickly found a way into the sewers to where the rest of the team had just finished off the last of the robot guards. They were just standing, looked at the bomb when Red X ran in and screamed, "stop that conveyer belt!"
The team looked at each other and didn't know if they should trust the thief but then Black Bird ran in adding a stern, "now!"
The Titans didn't need to be told twice after that and they all used their powers on the conveyer belt at once. It was destroyed in a second and the zinothium stopped being pumped into the bomb but the bomb did not turn off. "Red X? How is she connected to all this?" Rave asked as he flew in front of Black Bird and Red X.
"Not in the way you think," Beast Lad asked as he noticed his sister was back to her bashfully ways now that Rave stood right in front of her, "right now it's better to shut down this bomb anyway."
"I think Mystic can handle that," Alakazam said as Mystic got ready to send a jinx at the bomb to defuse it.
"No!" Red X quickly shouted before Mystic could send his hex, "that may turn off the bomb but the zinothium is too temperamental, it would exploded right now."
"So what do we do now," Android asked as the team went silent, but this silence was broken by the sound of someone up on the balcony. Everyone looked up at once to see Professor Chaos standing there with a meek look on his face as the last of his robots stood by him.
"Uh oh," he said when he saw all his robots destroyed and the Titans looking up at him. He quickly cleared his throat and tried to hide his fear as he said, "it does not matter if you defeated my robots because my bomb can not be stopped at this point. Goodbye Teen Titans," and with that he turned around and tried to walk away but it wasn't going to be that easy.
"Not in this lifetime," Red X said as she flew up to the balcony and launched an X at the guard making him fumble backwards and finally tip over the balcony as Red X grabbed the back of Chaos's coat and flipped him over the side. She grabbed onto him again in midair and pushed him under her, letting gravity do the rest. They plummeted towards the ground and Chaos would have been crushed like the guard had been when it hit had Rave not zoomed by at the last second and snatch Chaos away from Red X who landed on the ground gracefully without a sound.
"We don't do that," Rave said as Chaos began to thank him over and over again for saving his life, "we do this though," Rave said as he pulled back his fist and punched Chaos, sending him flying back until he hit the wall, sliding down it unconscious.
"Guys, you do remember the giant bomb right?" Alakazam said as she pointed at the bomb that was now pulsing with a red glow.
"Black Bird, I need you to take me in there," Red X said as she pointed to the bomb and all Black Bird could do was nod as she encased herself and Red X in a bubble and floated into the bomb. "There," Red X said as she pointed to a red line going around the inside of the bomb that the zinothium was slowly raising to, "once all the raw zinothium is boiled up to that point, Ka Boom!"
"So what do we do?" Black Bird asked as Red X paused for a crucial moment to think.
"How much of this can you take into orbit?" Red X asked as she looked at how solid the black magic bubble she was standing in was.
"About a quarter of it and that's stretching my limits," Black Bird said in defeat and panic as the zinothium kept rising.
"I'll have to take the rest of it," Red X said as her voice shook for a second but it cleared as she said, "drop the bubble take as much as you can and go."
"What! You'll be killed!" Black Bird yelled at Red X's ludicrous plan.
"My suit was designed to survive being completely immersed in zinothium and it can absorb it too but if we don't act now there'll be too much for this to work." Red X said as it seemed she was completely replaced by a new heroic person.
"Fine," Black Bird said as she focused her magic and shouted, "Azarath Arella Azar!" and a large portion of the zinothium was encased in black magic as her eyes began to glow white with energy. At the same time the bubble dropped around the girls and Red X dived into the red liquid head first.
Outside all the Titans saw was Black Bird shoot out of the bomb and head towards the surface as the large ball full of zinothium trailed behind her. "I'm not one to run…" Beast Lad said as the bomb stopped pulsing and began to glow solid red, and it was getting brighter.
"Agreed," Rave said as he took off after Black Bird followed by the rest of the team. They left Professor Chaos alone and he awoke and began to laugh as he pulled a device from his pocket and pushed a button making the bomb raise as he laughed louder the higher it went.
"What is she doing?" Alakazam asked as she looked up at the sky to see Black Bird flying higher and higher.
"Saving us," Beast Lad said as he looked up at his sister with more respect for her then he had ever had before. He was cut off from his thoughts though as the ground began to shack and split right where the playground was. The Titans quickly swooped in and got the children and people off of it as the bomb raised to the surface and was now glowing even brighter.
There was an explosion over head and Black Bird came plummeting to the ground out of nowhere. Rave reacted first and quickly flew up grabbing her in his arms bridle style as she laid limp, too week from her overuse of power to move but not enough to lean in closer to Rave's body. The bomb grew brighter and brighter as Rave landed on the ground and used his arm to support her as he put her back down on the ground. Finally the bomb grew so bright that the entire place was too bright to see anything but red for miles around and then it all disappeared like a light bulb burning out.
"Did it work?" Android asked as there was absolute silence after the light went away. That was when Red X floated out of the bomb with her arms out as she glowed red, almost as bright as the bomb had been.
"That was intense," Red X said as she laughed slightly and landed on the ground as the light seemed to be sucked into the ground around her too she fell unconscious.
Hours past and the Titans brought Red X back to the Tower while they celebrated their victory after helping the cops arrest Chaos and removed the bomb from the park. They were all getting ready to go out for pizza as they all laughed and had fun like they always did after a victory. But Red X didn't care much for this as she just stayed around until she could repair the systems in her suit that had overloaded. Right now she stood on the windowsill ready to leave.
"Do you guys usually do this?" Red X asked the closes person to her that just happened to be a fully rejuvenated Black Bird.
"Yeah, I don't think eating this much pizza is healthy," Black Bird said which made Red X turn her head to look at her as she didn't really expect a response. "Hey if you want to," Black Bird said as she paused, "you could do a lot of good with your powers."
"I'm not into the whole team thing," Red X said as she looked out the window at the sunset over the harbour, "and I'm definitely not into the hero thing, but don't worry you'll be seeing me again." With that she was going to jump out the window but she only got as far as leaning forward as Black Bird stopped her.
"Wait," Black Bird shouted as Red X looked back at her, "who are you?"
"It isn't going to be that easy," Red X said as she shook her head and laughed slightly.
"Fine, then just one clue?" Black Bird nearly demanded.
"The flying," Red X said as she looked back out the window before finishing, "isn't a part of the suit," and with that she jumped out the window and was gone. Black Bird ran over to the window but she already knew it was too late as she simple just looked out at the sunset, knowing that today she had made both a rival and a friend.
Meanwhile in a place unknown to all but a few Professor Chaos kneeled on his knees as chains bound his hands to the floor. Around him was completely black but you could tell that there were others in front of him on high judge like bunches by the reflection on their clothes and glasses.
"You have disgraced us," said a female voice from up the benches, "and you dare to this while you name yourself after us."
"I was just trying to impress you," Professor Chaos said silently as he averted his eyes from the council.
"You failed!" boomed the unmistakable voice of Slade as his red eye glowed from the dark, "take him away," Slade ordered and two robots came ripping Chaos's chains from the floor and dragged him off kicking and screaming. The lights flicked on over the council once he was gone to reveal Slade sitting in the middle with Sister Blood beside him as two other men and another women looked at him.
"This is unacceptable," one of the men said in a huff, "the only reason this Order has lasted this long is because the heroes do not know of it."
"The Titans wont tell anyone trust me," Slade said as a smile found its way to his lips, "perhaps this is a good thing. I have been sitting in wait as my power grows and the most I have done since I returned to the living is join this society. I think now is the time to strike," Slade said and the others began to bang there hands on the table in agreement before the lights went out over their heads and Slade finished from the darkness, "now is the time for The Order of Chaos to destroy the Titans once and for all."