Hello boys and girls and welcome to chapter fifteen of The New Teen Titans. Sorry the wait for this chapter was so long but school has started so the chapters are going to get further apart. But lets not dwell on that, instead lets move on to reviews. Well way2beme and outthere101, you were the only ones to ask questions and since it was the same question I'll elaborate on what has been going on for the original Titans. They were caught by Slade and now they're in a cell that they can't get out of. There really isn't much more to it I mean Slade is watching them and Nightwing's still trying to find any way possible to get out. Everyone else is just kind of sitting around being bored. It's the kids who matter and they still have no idea where Slade or their parents are so in the meantime we'll follow them through the adventures it takes to find them. Speaking of adventures, here's chapter fifteen of The New Teen Titans.
Chapter 15: Sparks: Part 2
The Titan Tower sickbay. A plan white room with four beds lined up in a row, monitors next to each bed and a x-ray machine above the middle bed on a swivel so that it was able to reach all the other beds. Chairs are set up by the door and near the beds and every single last thing was white. It was almost painful to stay in there for too long but when someone's in danger you tend to forget about colour, and in the Titan Tower sickbay, someone was always in danger. Right now, it was Android.
Alakazam had arrived at the Tower only a few minutes ago and had instantly ran to the sickbay. It wasn't exactly suited to the fact that Android was a robot but Alakazam hadn't taking much note to that at the time and just needed a place where she could work anyway. It took a few minutes to get her stabilized and to drain most of the electricity out. Android would be mad at her later for using magic on her hardware but Alakazam had trouble using the toaster without magic so if she had tried to do without she'd have just caused more damage.
When she was done the pipes in Android's body filled up with their regular blue liquid and her eyes lit up as they shot open. "Ow," Android said as she moved her hand up to her head only to have sparks shoot from the joint under her armpit.
"All the electricity isn't out yet," Alakazam warned as she moved over to her friend and pushed her down onto the bed, "I still need to get the rest of it out."
"I can take it from here," Android said as ones and zeros went by her eyes and she began to fix all of her own systems.
"Is anything important damaged?" Alakazam asked her friend as the worry that had plagued her face since Android was electrocuted began to fade as Android appeared ok, "as far as I could tell a lot of your systems were overloaded."
"Don't worry it's all just basic movement and sensitivity software," Android said as the ones and zeros continued to roll by her eyes as she talked, "I can fix it all in a couple of minutes. Besides all my important stuff, like my memory banks, my personality chip and my AI are more well protected then Fort Knox. It would take a lot a long time to affect me in anyway."
"Well that's good," Alakazam sighed as all the worry left her as she slumped into a chair by the door. With the worry gone though her mind went back to what had happened earlier before Overload attacked. "Hey Android?" Alakazam said tentatively as she sat up in her chair, "about what happened earlier with Beast Lad?"
"Don't worry about it," Android said as the ones and zeros stopped and she sat up without any sparks. "It's just," Android said as she swung her legs over the bed and bit her metal lip, "you know that I really like Beast Lad, right?"
"Yeah," Alakazam said with a mix of regret, jealously, meekness, anger and just about any other emotion that could be associated with teenage girls and boys, so just about every emotion, "why do you ask?"
"Well I figure we've been friends for a long time and," Android stuttered but stopped halfway through as she just decided to ask right out, "do you like Beast Lad?"
Alakazam paused for a long time before stuttering out "umm, no… I mean if you…but then," and she would have continued if she wasn't stopped by Android who stopped listing once she heard the word 'no'.
"Great then we can still be friends and not have to fight over some guy," Android said as she jumped the short distance from the bed to the floor. She didn't want to know the but and she didn't notice that Alakazam had paused for a long time before even saying no. She had heard what she wanted to hear even if it wasn't what Alakazam really meant.
"Yeah," Alakazam said as she laughed nervously and began to sweat a little after her blunt lie of a statement.
Android walked over and looked at Alakazam and she fully knew that Alakazam had lied and was struggling on whether or not to tell the truth. She hoped that she wouldn't say anything that could put their friendship at risk and she inhaled sharply when Alakazam opened her mouth to add something to her unfinished sentence. Luckily that was when Rave popped into the room.
"Oh Android you're awake," Rave said calmly as he wouldn't have been able to sense the tension in the air if it had slapped him. "Come on we're having a meeting to discuss our loss."
"We lost?" Android said shocked, really she did it to break the tension Rave couldn't see to break but she was still surprised about the lose.
"Yeah," Rave said as the anger and depression that always filled his voice after a defeat once again was present. He turned and waved the girls to follow as he began walking towards the war room. Android and Alakazam looked at each other for a moment and followed, deciding to leave their little dispute for later, when it probably wouldn't be so little.
The war room was a room added by the New Titans for the planning of battles and for following leads on Slade. The latter was mostly done by Rave and he had doubles of all the newspaper clippings that were pinned to the wall pinned to his wall. The rooms main purpose though was mission briefings and that could be seen as Rave, Alakazam and Android entered the room. It was actually a small room that was mostly filled with a large round table that had revolving chairs situated around it. Each of these chairs were made for a different Titan as could be told from the logos on the backs, an idea they got from the JLA's Watch Tower meeting room which they had visited as children. Rave moved and sat the farthest from the door with Beast Lad and Black Bird on ether side of him, Mystic was on the other side of Beast Lad and Alakazam and Android sat between Mystic and Black Bird. In the centre of the room was a large blue ball that had many wires running through it and which colouring was similar to Android's.
"Alright, today we were defeated by one of our parents old enemies, Overload," Rave said as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. "It happened because we were unprepared for what we faced," Rave said as he studied the looks on all the Titans faces, "so me and Beast Lad looked through the original Titans files and discovered his origin."
"And will now show it through the magic of power point," Beast Lad said as he clicked a button on a remote he held. The ball in the middle of the table made a few beeping noises and then a beam of light popped up and spread out until it became a revolving square picture for the Titans to see. In the picture four men with messy military style uniforms on sat in some jungle, posing for the camera. Two had their arms around each other as they smiled wide smiles, the one farthest to the right holding up two fingers in the peace sign. Next to them sat a man who had a emotionless face and was holding a rifle in one hand. And finally on the edge of the picture was a man who's face was blurred out.
"He use to belonged to a group of four mercenaries who underwent experimental and illegal testing," Rave explained as the smiling friend who wasn't holding up the piece sign was highlighted, "his name was Oliver Load."
"Which really begs the question, just how long did it take him to come up with Overload as a codename?" Beast Lad said as he looked utterly confused at his own question.
"He had his personality, brain waves and thought patterns programmed into a computer chip but he lost his humanity," Rave said as he continued, ignoring Beast Lad's question. "The other members were Brock Lain who's brain was put into a stone golem," Rave said as the man holding the rifle was highlighted, "he became Cinderblock. The other member was Otto Furth who was merged with an unknown substance that's activated by conscience thought," Rave said as the other smiling man was highlighted, "he changed his mind at the last minute but it was too late as he was already Plasmus. The last member we couldn't find anything on, like he was erased from history," Rave said as the blurred man was highlighted, "it appears that parts of his brains were advanced so that he became an expert plainer and battle strategist with near super human reflexes and agility."
"Three guesses who he is," Beast Lad said as he held up three fingers, "and the first two don't count."
"Slade," Alakazam said as she voiced just what everyone was thinking.
"Ding, ding, ding, give the lady her prize," Beast Lad said as he imitated a bad game show announcer.
"But Overload was a chip," Black Bird said as she rolled her eyes at her brother, something that was happening more and more often, "who was the guy with the burns and the lab coat?"
"That was a man named Robert Layfield," Rave said as the picture on the hologram projector changed to a picture of Robert, "he was the person working on finding out how Overload's powers work. Overload possessed him somehow and now he cant feel pain but damage is dealt to Robert's body. Not to mention that all the electricity running though him can't be good."
"So what do we do?" Android asked as she recalled the amount of electricity that had went through her and tried to imagined what that could do to a human.
"Mystic says that Overload mentioned going to find Plasmus," Rave said as he motioned for Beast Lad to push the button again. The picture changed to a 3-D image of a large stone building with a sign out front which read 'Belle Reave: Meta-Human Hospital & Research Facility'. "He's being kept here," Rave said as he pointed at the rotating building, "it's best if we set up a trap for Overload there."
"Yeah but how can we actually beat this guy" Alakazam asked as she waved her hands around to show her point, "water doesn't work on him anymore."
"It still short-circuits him even if it's for a shortened time," Rave explained as he pushed the button again and the picture changed to an image of Overload floating in the air, "the true way to beat him is to drain the energy from him."
"That's why he's always floating," Beast Lad said as he finished Rave's explanation, "if we can get him on the ground the electricity will go into the ground and he'll be one hundred percent drained."
"So any more questions before we head out?" Rave asked as he signalled for Beast Lad to turn off the hologram projector. He did and the image closed together and the beam withdrew into the blue ball which stopped glowing after a beeping noise.
"What about Plasmus?" Mystic asked from his chair were he had been sitting silently with his cloak covering as much of his body as it possible could.
"Plasmus has been in a coma since before we were born," Beast Lad said as he and the rest of the Titans stood to leave, but not Mystic. He sat as Beast Lad finished, "there's no chance Overload will be able to wake him up."
"But what if he does?" Mystic asked as he flicked his hood down and looked into the eyes of his leader.
"Then Overload will be the least of our worries," Rave answered as his face went deadpan, moving towards the door he said, "let's go," before leading the Titans off to set their trap.
On the edge of town sat Belle Reave a building built for the study of meta-humans but later evolved into a hospital for their special needs after their numbers sharply increased after the super-hero/super-villain spike in the early nineties. This one was relatively new though, unlike the ones that had existed for years in Metropolis and Fawcett City as well as other large cities with famous heroes. Jump City had never been thought of as a city with a large percentage of meta-humans though even after the Teen Titans set up base there, but in recent years one had been built anyway if for nothing then for the sake of the sick and strange metas from the jail a couple of miles away from town. But just like the Titan Tower sick bay it's not the structure that matters but the people in it. This time the most interesting being held there was Plasmas and Overload was looking for him.
Overload came floating down the middle of the highway with his arms extended in a Christ like position as his eyes glowed with energy. A car came speeding along and didn't see him until the last moment when the drivers eyes went huge and he sharply turned. Before he could go into the ditch though Overload caught the car with a net of electricity and flung the car back unto the road upside-down. He drained the energy from the car as he floated by it, getting the energy it had taken him to lift the car back and gaining the attention of two guards outside Belle Reave.
The two guards had been stationed there ever since word had reached that Overload was back so security in generally was increased. "Freeze!" one of the guards yelled through his protective face mask at the floating villain who looked down at him as if he was nothing.
"Fool," Overload said as he lowered his arms to his sides and shook his head at the two shacking men. One man was shacking like crazy though as the energy filled eyes of Overload gazed into his unemotionally. He shook so much that his weapon discharged and fired off a series of bullets at the electrically charged villain. But it wasn't good enough as with inhuman speed Overload waved his arm in front of him and another web of electricity was formed in front of him, catching the bullets. He smirked as the shacking guard dropped his gun the other guard glancing over at him as he began to shack more as well but he held out.
"I said freeze," the guard said, his voice shacking as the other guard had already turned and was now running back towards the building.
"Bravery?" Overload said as he smirked and raised his hand. Electricity shot from his figure tips and whizzed by the braver guard's head hitting the guard who was running and sending him to the ground. "Useless emotion," he said turning his hand slightly and sending another bolt which this time hit the brave guard head on and sent him flying backwards. Before he even hit the ground Overload had already flew to the hospital door.
He went inside and floated down the halls looking for Plasmas. The security cameras and security systems didn't even get a chance to catch him as their energy shot from them and into him as soon as he got near. He floated down a hall when he saw there was a door next to a large window at the end of it. He stopped when he got there and looked inside to see a slightly fat, balding middle age scientist going around a tube filled with liquid, cheeking it like Robert had cheeked Overload's containment field. In the room was the tube which had a generator next to it pumping energy though a cable as well as a desk near by with papers piled on top. That was all that was in the room rest of it being empty and huge almost like a hanger bay. Overload smiled as his eyes began to glow with energy and he moved over to the door blasting it off its hinges.
"You!" the scientist said as he stumbled backwards and fell in front of the floating villain. He shook as Overload turned and looked into the tube at Plasmas. He was looking a lot older and was clearly now middle aged. His hair was staring to recede and some wrinkles were here and there on his body in places where wrinkles would form if you slept all day.
Overload frowned at this sign of humanity in his old friend before turning to the scientist, his frown turning to a look of furry. "Release him!" Overload shouted as he used electricity to lift the scientist into the air.
"But he's in a coma," the scientist stuttered as he began to ring his hands and tried to move away from the villain the most he could, "if we remove his life-support he may die."
"You're useless," Overload said as he flicked his hand and electricity shocked the scientist sending him flying back over his desk, knocking papers down as he went. Overload then turned to look at the generator beside Plasmus's tank, its humming almost asking him to take its power. He floated in front of the a machine and it began to spark streams of electricity as if to greet him. He flung his arms back and the electricity flowered into him making his entire body glow with electricity.
The electricity kept on flowing, the small machine giving out more then it looked like it was capable of holding but it was draining, Overload could feel it. But he was forced to stop before he could finish his task as from somewhere in the rafters he heard the sound that most villains feared, the call of, "Titans Go!"
Out from the rafters Rave shot down as the other Titans followed suite all falling from the rafters far above the energy monster's head. Rave was the first to reach him though as he flew past him at an impossible speed making him spin around and become disoriented as well as breaking his connection to the generator. "You will all pay!" Overload shouted as he wobbled slightly in the air, but the Titans weren't listening.
"Azarath Arella Azar!" Black Bird shouted, engulfing the chair behind the desk in black magic and separating it into all its separate components. Then her and the other girls began to send waves of chair parts, spells and balls of sonic energy at the dazed villain who attempted to avoid them all. He couldn't keep it up for long though as the back of the chair hit him square in the face and that was followed up by a sonic ball to the stomach which sent him recoiling backwards.
"Beast Lad, Mystic now!" Rave yelled as he pointed his finger at the distracted villain. Both Beast Lad and Mystic ran out from behind him and towards Overload, Beast Lad turning into green yeti as he went. When they reached him they both grabbed a leg each and yanked him from the air to the ground. The energy began to rush from him and into the ground as he yelled out in pain falling to his knees facing Plasmas.
"No!" He shouted using what was possible the last of his energy to send a jolt of electricity through his legs which shocked both Beast Lad and Mystic and sent them flying backwards. He then reached out to the generator and the last of its power went into him charging his hand with energy. "Now, awaking!" he yelled turning his hand toward Plasmus's tube and sending all the energy he had just absorbed right at it. It hit the tube and it broke apart, shattering into a million piece as the liquid inside began to poor out.
Overload collapsed to the ground unconscious when all his energy was gone and Plasmus flowed from the tube along with the water. His body like a rag doll being carried by the current to the middle of the floor, the Titans all gathering around him. "Is he…" Black Bird asked as the Titans all looked down at the limp man. There was an eerie silence in the room as for a second not a sound was heard, Plasmus just lying there but then he opened his eyes.