DISCLAIMER: I don't own Teen Titans. If I did, this would be on TV and not here.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This doesn't take place in the same storyline as my "Forced Base" and "Fractured Heart" stories, so forget those when you're reading this. Also, about Sanza/Red X: When he's wearing the mask, he's Red X. When he's not, he's Sanza. Simple as that.
SECOND AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a sequel to "The Life and Times of Red X", which is in my profile. Read that before you read this. Also, this fic COMPLETELY IGNORES the events of the fifth season (with the exception of "Go"). For the purposes of this fic, "Things Change" NEVER HAPPENED.
O-O-O
A dark warehouse in the industrial sector of Jump City was not the place one would normally want to find himself at night, but that's where Red X was on this particular evening, standing among large stacks of boxes and barrels as thunder rocked the skies outside. It was a very late night, and as the rain pounded the building's metallic roof, the thief was beginning to wonder whether or not his contact would show.
"It's eleven twenty..." thought Red X, his foot tapping repeatedly against the cement floor. "She should've been here by-"
The large metallic door at the front of the warehouse slowly slid open, and a flash of lightning illuminated the beautiful figure standing in the center of the doorway. A red-haired goddess in a tight black leather catsuit, a lustful smile on her beautiful orange-skinned face.
"Starfire..." the thief's mouth curled into a smile under his mask as Starfire slowly walked toward him, the smooth figure of her legs sensually displayed with every stride. Her every curve was visible under the shiny black leather, and her hands, clad in equally tight black gloves, began moving around Red X as soon as she got near. Slowly, her fingers slid along the side of his body, up to the opening separating his mask from the rest of his suit.
"Normally I would never have quit the Titans to become your partner in crime... but you are so, so much sexier than Robin... I simply could not resist," said the Tamaranian, her light, airy voice taking on a smooth, seductive quality as she slowly began sliding the mask up the side of Sanza's face, revealing only his lips. Her fingers then slowly slid back down the sides of his face before wrapping around the back of his waist, interlocking tightly behind him. "It was the fact that you are... such a naughty, naughty boy... so rebellious... something Robin could never be."
By now, the thief's fingers were sliding up the front of Starfire's body... he stopped at her chest to briefly rub the tips of his fingers over her erect nipples, which could clearly be discerned under the tight catsuit, before moving around and behind her body, lacing his own fingers tightly behind her neck.
Within seconds, he had locked lips with Starfire, and the two were exchanging a passionate kiss, their tongues rubbing quickly and freely against the other's in a litany of lust. Slowly, Sanza's fingers grasped the zipper at the back of Starfire's catsuit and began to pull it down.
"I am not... mmm... wearing... anything under this... mmm..." Sanza's lips moving back and forth over Starfire's muffled her words as she spoke.
"I don't... mm... care, Starfire..."
"Before... before we... make the passionate love, I... I must ask you one thing..." said Starfire, as Sanza slowly slid the catsuit down over her body. Just before her breasts were revealed completely, Starfire began to speak again... in a deep, male tone. "What were the three most notable foreign policy achievements of the Nixon administration?"
"HUH!"
O-O-O
And with that, Sanza's erotic dream was over, and he was rudely brought out of his midday slumber and back into the real world... that of his junior U.S. History class.
"Mr. Salazar, this is the seventh time this semester that I have caught you sleeping in my class," said Sanza's teacher Mr. Winterstein, his arms crossed over his chest as he stood to the right of Sanza's desk. The other students in the class, including Cleo, began to laugh, some laughing louder than others. "They might think it's funny, but I don't think you'll find it funny when I send you to the dean."
"N...no, Mr. Winterstein, please..." Sanza said sleepily, not begging so much for his teacher not to punish him as he was for just five more minutes of sleep. "I... I'll listen to your lecture, what were we talking about again?"
"Honestly, Sanza, I don't think you care about United States history at all," sighed his teacher, slowly walking back up to his desk at the front of the room. He sat down in his chair and briefly thought about taking out a referral from his desk, but decided that it just wasn't worth it to spend two minutes and several cents worth of red ink to send Sanza to the office. "But when you fail this class and you don't get to graduate from high school, don't come crying to me."
Sanza let out a long sigh as the teacher began flipping through his text book, while Cleo quickly leaned over and whispered in Sanza's ear.
"Does he know you're getting a B minus in this class anyway?" whispered Cleo, prompting Sanza to smile and nod his head. He leaned back in his chair, staring at the teacher for a few seconds before putting his head back down on his desk and letting out a barely-audible yawn.
It had been thirty-six hours since Sanza had last worn the Red X suit... thirty-six hours since Terra had been revived and the Crisis Crystal had been destroyed. The threat to the city was over, and Beast Boy had his little girlfriend back. Everything was completely fine... for the Teen Titans. Sanza still had the ever-present threat of Slade to deal with... and the best way to deal with that was to keep his skills sharp.
He was going out tonight, going out to steal. That much he knew... what he didn't know was exactly what he was going to steal, or where he would steal it from. As Mr. Winterstein began to speak again, Sanza paid little attention to the foreign policy accomplishments of the Nixon administration... it was the accomplishments of another crook, Red X, that Sanza was focusing on.
Not accomplishments in the past... but accomplishments in the future.
O-O-O
As they did nearly every single day, Sanza, Cleo, Rob, and Marcy walked out to the buses together, discussing the numerous subjects that would normally come up in a conversation between teenagers leaving school for the day. One of the immediate subjects of talk was the fact that Sanza had fallen asleep in history class... and had quite nearly been busted for it.
"Mr. Winterstein was looking at the little drawer where he pulls referrals out from," said Cleo, smirking casually at Sanza as the four friends stopped in the middle of the sidewalk facing the buses. "He really was thinking about sending you to the dean..."
"Wouldn't be the first time," replied Sanza, his hands in his pockets.
"No shit, Sherlock," said Rob, prompting Marcy to elbow him hard in the side. "Well it's true! Sanza gets in trouble even more than I do!"
"Okay, so the time you got suspended for playing with the school's emergency defibrillator completely doesn't count, does it?" asked Marcy, narrowing her eyes and repeatedly poking Rob on the shoulder. "They were thinking about expelling you for that!"
"They only gave you a suspension when they realized you weren't trying to steal it and were just screwing around with it," said Sanza, placing his hands deeper in his pockets as a cool spring breeze rushed by the assembled group of friends. "Still... those things are kinda dangerous."
"Speaking of dangerous things, it's a good thing you didn't get detention, because tomorrow after school I'm heading right to the convention center for that big military expo that's about to start," said Rob, holding up a clipping he'd gotten from the paper that morning. On the clipping were several pictures of soldiers and various military weapons, as well as dates and times for the expo. "Any of you guys wanna go with me?"
"I'll pass," Cleo said, rolling her eyes and turning to Sanza. "Actually, Sanza... tomorrow night if you're not busy, maybe you and I can go out together... have dinner, see a movie, maybe go up on the hills and make out..."
Sanza blushed, and Cleo immediately started to laugh, while Marcy giggled and Rob nudged Sanza repeatedly in the side.
"She's practically begging you to have sex with her, man..." whispered Rob, extremely quietly so that only Sanza could hear. "You're definitely gonna score... if you need condoms I can totally hook you up."
Sanza turned away from Rob and back toward Cleo, briefly glancing at her body before returning his gaze to her face and smiling warmly. She too had some nice curves, at least from what Sanza could tell from what her white tanktop and red flannel jacket revealed to him. Her face was pretty as well, blue eyes, orange-red hair, and cute freckles adorning her cheeks... she bore a slight resemblance to Starfire, though her skin was much paler, a pale peach as opposed to Starfire's bronzy orange.
And she was funny as well... funny, sweet, and certainly a girl one could grow to love... which Sanza had done, though much more slowly than he'd fallen for Starfire. He had his share of lustful thoughts about Cleo... certainly nothing like the dream he'd had about Starfire earlier that day, but nonetheless...
"Of course I'll go with you, Cleo... tomorrow night at seven, maybe?"
Cleo nodded, before noticing that the row of buses behind Sanza and Rob were starting to move... their conversation had dragged just a bit long.
"Tomorrow night it is, I'll meet you at your house... you'd better hurry and catch your bus though!" Cleo said, leaning in and kissing Sanza briefly on the lips before running to board her own bus. Marcy split from the group as well, waving to Sanza and Rob as the two rushed to climb onto their bus, finding an empty seat near the back and sitting down quickly.
"Hey... you know, Sanza, that still gives you plenty of time to come to the expo with me tomorrow after school," said Rob, again pulling out the newspaper clipping and holding it up to Sanza's face. "We'll have like three whole hours to see all the cool tanks and stuff, it'll be fun, whatd'ya say?"
Sanza stared at the clipping... he really was unable to keep from looking at it, as it had been thrust right into his face... and an idea started to pop into his head. The part of his mind that had been ceded to Red X began working in overdrive, and within just a few seconds, he knew exactly where he was going to steal from next. Unlike an office building or a freight ship, a convention center was a large, open area, most likely with few guards. The openness of the place meant that it was easy to escape any guards that did happen to see you... it would be a perfect heist for Red X.
And with plenty of military technology just lying out in the open, the thief would have many different items to choose from. It would be like taking candy from a baby... or in this case, guns from an army. Normally, the difficulty of those two tasks would be starkly different, but for Red X, all things were easy.
"Uh, Sanza?" asked Rob, waving his hand slowly in front of his friend's face. "So, do you want to come with me, or not?"
"Uh... sure, yeah," Sanza stammered, quickly blinking to recover his thoughts. "Silly, silly Rob... when I get done with that place tonight, there won't be any expo tomorrow..."
O-O-O
Sanza had been able to repair the Red X suit with relative ease the previous day, using Xynothium to patch the various burns made in the suit by Monster Ruell's acid vomit. The Xynothium had been patched over the tears, and had seemingly melted into the material, making the suit look as good as new... a feature that Sanza was grateful to Robin for putting in the suit. He'd wanted to watch baseball after fixing the suit, but for some reason, the baseball game had turned into a rugby game... and the Titans were playing.
"Not the first time the Titans have ruined my day..." thought Sanza, now reclining in a chair in the living room of his family's apartment, staring listlessly at the television. His sister was up in her room, doing homework and listening to music, while his mother was in the kitchen, making dinner. He could already smell the cabbage cooking, and wasn't looking forward to whatever his mother was planning to make. "Mom, you know that smells horrible, right?"
She didn't even reply, and the smell only got stronger as the minutes wore on. It certainly wasn't good to Sanza that he was about to go to battle on a stomach that might only be partially-filled, as he couldn't see himself eating very much of whatever his mother was cooking. Now that there were six Titans, if they did decide to show up while Sanza was at the convention center tonight, the odds were most certainly in their favor. It would have to be a quick job... in and out, and this time, he would bring something home to show for it.
"Who knows, I might even get to steal a tank," thought Sanza, looking at the screen as an advertisement for the convention began to play. "Am I kidding? The Titans would almost certainly come after me then."
Then again, Sanza couldn't help but chuckle as he imagined what Slade's face would look like when Red X came crashing into his headquarters inside of a giant tank. It was only a fantasy, but a welcome one at that... though not quite as welcome as the ones he had about Starfire.
Sanza continued his train of thought, his mind now drifting to the new member of the team... the blonde girl with the amazing powers over the earth. Terra was her name, and she was certainly a looker... Sanza wouldn't have minded seeing her in a black catsuit either, though as figures go, she didn't have the perfect body that Starfire did... the only thing better about Terra was her eyes, a piercing, beautiful blue.
"If she shows up with the others, what could I possibly use on her? Robin didn't build this suit with her in mind, so..."
It had been briefly battle-tested against Terra when she'd been under the crystal's control, but everything Red X had thrown at her had been a complete bust. Binding cables, bombs, shurikens, she beat them all and kept on coming. Her powers were formidable and ferocious, and she'd been able to best him even quicker than Robin had.
"I'll think of something... I just hope I don't have to tonight."
"Sanza, Maddalena, supper's done!"
Maria's call had brought the foul smell of the cabbage back to the forefront of Sanza's mind... though the smell coming from the kitchen was no longer quite as unpleasant, and as Sanza stood up from the chair and made the short walk to the kitchen table, he realized that whatever his mother made couldn't possibly taste as bad as whatever it was he'd smelt earlier. In seventeen years of cooking for Sanza, she'd almost never made a bad meal for him...
And Sanza knew that a good, home-cooked meal was exactly what he needed to give him strength before his upcoming mission. If he really was going to have to fight six Titans, he'd need all the energy he could get.
O-O-O
The convention center, a large building that took up nearly an entire block of downtown Jump City, stood illuminated by large, bright yellow lights mounted on its roof, which curved upward in a gentle slope before then sloping back downward, giving the facade of the roof a half-circle shape.
The roof was where Red X was planning to make his entrance, after having climbed up the side of the building quickly, without being detected. The roof itself was about sixty feet above the ground, its length and width identical to that of a football field, giving the exhibition room of the building a wide-open, expansive feel. The thief stood right at the center of the roof, making a small, X-shaped hole in the ceiling wide enough to poke his head through.
"Let's see here..." X's eyes scanned out over the room, which had been carefully laid out and sectioned-off for the next day's exhibit. He could see hundreds of displays lit up in dim blue light, with empty, hall-like space in-between. Occasionally he would see a security guard passing between two of the exhibits, shining his flashlight back and forth before moving on. "I need to find a place I can land without being caught immediately..."
Toward the center of the room stood a large sign marked 'Bunker Busting Technology: Behind Today's Biggest Bombs', in front of which stood several glass cases. Inside one of the cases, a large, cylindrical object was laid out, while several other cases contained smaller objects, including metallic bomb parts and several objects that looked like computer discs. Next to that display was a cubicle-like room, in which stood several racks of guns and grenades.
When it appeared as if there were no guards approaching, the thief created a larger hole in the roof and dropped down through it, stopping himself from hitting the floor by blasting two of the glass cases and two of the gun racks with Xs. The four Xs dissolved and formed a large, X-shaped trampoline beneath the thief, which he landed on to slow his fall. Instead of propelling him back into the air, it disappeared, and he had a safe drop to the ground of only a few inches. He quickly stood up and crouched behind the wooden base of a glass box, concealing himself from view as a security guard walked by.
Red X was in... and every single thing present in the expo was potentially his. All he had to do was find what he wanted and get out of the building. He peered into one of the glass cases and saw several very-shiny looking metallic objects, obviously a part of the bunker buster bomb being displayed in the case behind him.
"These are nice... but I'm not building a bomb, I want something that's actually valuable..." Red X quickly ducked out of the display and gazed up, trying to find a sign that indicated actual objects of interest. There were guns, tanks... many different planes on display, including a full recreation of a stealth fighter jet toward the back of the room. "That would be awesome to fly around if it weren't just a model... then again, where the hell could I possibly park it?"
Besides the signs posted around the expo to display the names of the individual exhibits, there were also other signs posted with names of companies on them, obviously the names of the companies that designed some of the weapons and software being displayed.
As he walked past another row of exhibits, Red X could see that every single modern software company was well-represented in the various displays of high-grade software. One company name rang particularly familiar in his mind... as if he'd heard the name somewhere before.
A large display of glass cases sat under a sign marked 'LaredoSoft: Winning The Wars Of Past, Present, and Future'. Several computers inhabited the cases, as well as a wide assortment of floppy and compact disks. A television screen mounted on one of the boxes showed the various tasks that the company's software instructed military robots to perform... but Red X's attention was drawn to something in the case under the television. A beige object about a foot wide, consisting of two circular disks with a narrower but much fatter disc inbetween, its surface shining under the reflection of the light given off by the television screen.
"That might be worth some money," said Red X, closely eyeballing the object. "If I could just figure out what it is..."
"Hey you! Freeze!"
Red X turned toward the voice, which came from about several feet away. He was staring not into the barrel of a gun, but into a bright flashlight that was being shone directly into his eyes. The flashlight was held by a man who appeared to be in his sixties, wearing a tan security uniform and blue jeans. Clearly, the man wasn't Baddalax material, and Red X didn't seem threatened in the least.
"You might wanna put that light down, old man," said Red X, raising an arm to shield his face from the blinding light. "I'm warning you, I don't want to have to kick the ass of somebody who has grandkids."
"Now... now you just stay right there, I'm gonna call the police and-"
A much younger, deeper voice than the old man's interrupted him from behind.
"Step aside, we'll take it from here, sir."
The old man did as he was told, and two much younger men took his place. They were both dressed in camouflage jumpsuits, and wore green helmets with 'MP' marked above the brim in bright, white letters. Red X took a step back, going into a defensive stance. He knew exactly who these gentlemen were.
"Military police..." he said quietly, bristling as the men both leveled guns at his head. "This is just great..."
"You're going to need to come with us, sir," said the first MP, his finger tightly wrapping around the trigger of his gun. "We are authorized to use lethal force."
"You'll have to catch me first," said Red X, somersaulting backward while firing a large, metallic X at both men to catch them off guard. They discharged their weapons, but the bullets all slammed into the X, bouncing harmlessly off of it. The metallic X then hit both men at once, pushing them all the way past several exhibits and back into the wall. As they groaned and quickly recovered, Red X turned left and dashed down into another area of the large room, swinging into an exhibit named 'Robotics and The Military: Soldier of the 21st Century'. He could hear the voices of more MPs nearby, and quickly realized that he may have bitten off more than he could chew. Looking up next to him, he could see a large, gray humanoid robot, bearing few distinguishing features on its body, save for a face that bore a pair of light-up eyes, a nose, and a set of realistic-looking lips. It was wearing a helmet nearly identical to those worn by the MPs chasing him, without the lettering in front. "Hmmm..."
The two soldiers whom X had knocked into the wall were now giving pursuit, and were joined by four more soldiers, expanding the group to six in all. The six men charged together as a unit toward an exhibit adjacent to the robot display, and X could hear their footsteps getting closer and closer.
"We'll fan out into these two exhibits, we've got the entrances guarded so there's no way he's getting out," said one of the soldiers, gesturing for three of the men to go left while the other three turned right, into the robot exhibit. As soon as they turned, they came face-to-face with the large, humanoid soldier robot, its eyes shining a bright red.
"KILL ALL HUMANS!" said the robot, in a deep, menacing voice. Of course, a few feet behind the robot, Red X was crouched down with a large remote control in his hands, speaking into a small microphone built into the remote to make the robot talk. The three men immediately pointed their guns at the robot and discharged a hail of gunfire. The bullets made small dents in the robot's metallic frame, but otherwise did no damage at all. "Bullets cannot harm me! I am superior to you pathetic humans! Surrender to me! Surrender!"
The robot lumbered forward and punched one of the soldiers in the face, knocking him to the ground. The other two men, realizing that the thief they were chasing was probably controlling the robot from nearby, attemped to get around the lumbering metallic man, only to have it reach out and grab them both by the neck.
"Foolish humans, it is pointless to resist!" the robot shouted, just before slamming both men into a nearby wall. Because the men were wearing helmets, the impact didn't knock them out immediately... so the robot tossed both soldiers away, flinging them through the glass cases in another nearby exhibit.
The three soldiers who had gone into the exhibit nearby weren't too happy to see their squadmates flung through the air, and quickly charged into the robot exhibit. The robot that X had commandeered was now powered-down, and the only thing that the three men saw when they reached the exhibit was the unmoving robot and a discarded remote control.
"He didn't... he didn't use this thing to take out the others, did he?" asked one of the MPs, picking up the remote and cradling it in his hands.
"Yeah, I did," came X's voice from behind the men, prompting all of them to turn around. "But I won't have to to take out the three of you."
Before the men could lift their guns, X had shot the three of them with binding cables, keeping their arms tightly at their sides. He then kicked all three men in the face, knocking them to the ground in a daze.
"Military or not, there's nobody on earth who can contain a guy like me," said Red X, taunting the three men before turning around and walking back toward the LaredoSoft exhibit. "And now to claim my-"
A powerful laser blast slammed into the ground just behind Red X, knocking him off his feet and sending him face-first into the floor. He rolled around onto his back and looked up... and standing just a few feet in front of him was the large robot which he'd used just moments ago to fight three of the MPs. Next to the robot was the elderly security guard from before, now holding the remote control in his hands.
"I'm not such an old man now, am I, sonny?" shouted the old man, pressing a button on the remote and causing the robot's eyes to light up. It quickly fired two more laser blasts, forcing Red X to scoot back rapidly across the ground, barely avoiding being burnt to a crisp.
"Oh, shit..." thought Red X, nervously picking himself up from the ground. "Just my luck to run across the one badass rent-a-cop in the entire world..."
Red X quickly turned and ran toward the back wall, leaping over a shattered display case as the robot charged forward toward him at a very fast clip.
"He knows how to make it RUN!"
As the robot dashed toward Red X, it continued firing lasers out of its eyes, blowing up two display cases in a large, fiery explosion which nearly knocked the thief down again. Once he reached the wall, he ran along it until he found himself an opening, then ducked through that opening and dashed as far to the back of whatever room he'd entered as he could. It was only after he'd slowed down and looked around that he realized exactly where he'd chosen as his hiding place.
"...a women's restroom," X mused to himself, seeing rows and rows of empty stalls without a urinal in sight. Several changing tables also lined the walls, and a large, well-lit mirror was mounted on a wall near the front of the room. As he slumped against the back wall and began to catch his breath, he could hear a loud, metallic shuffling from outside, and knew that the robotic soldier was drawing closer and closer. The old man had apparently seen X go into the bathroom, and now the thief immediately regretted his decision, knowing that he had little chance against the robot in an enclosed space.
"I could try phasing out of here... I'd be out of the convention center and probably safe... but then I'd be leaving empty handed, and I promised myself I wouldn't come back home unless I stole something. What kind of a thief would I be if I always chickened out before actually taking anything valuable? I'd be a lousy thief, that's what... and nobody is going to call Red X a lousy thief!"
It was then that the cement wall blocking the interior of the restroom from view by the outside completely crumbled, destroyed by a well-placed laser blast. Now Red X was completely exposed, and with another wall behind him, he was trapped as well. The robot began slowly lumbering toward him, its eyes aglow again.
"Come on, you pile of crap, come and get me!" shouted Red X, pointing his palms at the robot's face as he crouched into a fighting stance. "This had better work, or I'm screwed..."
Just before the robot could fire, a sticky X pasted itself over the robot's glowing eyes, and an instant later, the entire head of the machine blew up, the energy of the laser having bounced back right inside its metallic skull. Smoke and sparks began pouring from the top of the decapitated robot, still standing in the room's opening, its arms hanging limply at its sides.
Behind the robot, the old man let out a sigh, but didn't drop the remote... he knew better than X did that the robot was still very much functional, even without its head. Red X confidently walked toward the smoking machine, hoping to squeeze around it and take down the old man himself. When he got within two feet, however, he got an unpleasant surprise as the robotic soldier's arm quickly clenched around his neck, grasping tightly.
As Red X began to cough and choke, the robot spun around, turning the thief toward the main room so that the elderly security guard could get closer to him. The guard began walking toward Red X, triggering the robot's metallic hand to squeeze tighter and tighter with every step he took. X struggled furiously in the headless bot's grasp, his feet slamming repeatedly into the midsection of the robot behind him... but nothing seemed to loosen its grip, and it was quite clear that the thief was in very dire straits indeed.
"You thought you could come here and steal technology from the military, did you?" shouted the man, pointing his finger at Red X. He was now standing just a few feet from X and the robot, and the thief, looking behind his back, could see the controller still held in the man's right hand.
"Unnnnggggh... damn you..." X choked out, his feet still swinging wildly in front of him, trying to do anything he could to get the robot to loosen its grip. "This is as bad as when Starfire had me in that full-Nelson hold... I'd better do something quick..."
After several more tries at kicking the robot, X's legs began to stop moving, and then, his head slumped. It appeared that he had passed out from lack of oxygen. With an approving smile, the old man took another step closer, observing the limp thief held in the robot's grasp.
"Excellent, excellent..." said the old man, leaning his face in a bit closer. "Now, let's-"
X's elbow snapped backward, catching the old man right in the nose. The man stumbled back, letting out a loud cry of pain and dropping his remote to the ground as he clutched his face with both hands. The robot's grip loosened, and X's feet slammed into the bot's chest, creating enough force to loosen the bot's grip entirely and freeing Red X, who fell to the ground and landed on his back. He stood up and dashed toward the dropped remote, hoping to get it before the security guard had another chance to re-activate the robot. He was stopped in mid-dive by the man's hand around his ankle, and soon found himself pulled backward a couple of feet before being dropped on the ground.
"I don't think so!" shouted the old man, running forward and stepping over Red X to reach the remote control. He picked it up and reactivated the robot, which began to lumber toward Red X again, its neck still sparking and smoking. "Kill him! KILL HIM!"
X was now standing between the robot and the security guard, and quickly looked back and forth toward both of them, wondering whether he should flee the robot or attempt to go at the security guard again to try and get the remote control away from him. Before he could make a decision, the robot's hand shot out and grabbed Red X around the ankle, twirling him in the air several times before flinging him back toward the center of the room and another one of the displays that lay within. His back slammed hard into a plaster display sign, denting it heavily and nearly going completely through it.
When he was able to stand, he could see the decapitated robot charging past several other displays and quickly coming at him, its fists both striking at X at the same time. X ducked, allowing the robot to punch right through the sign, then rolled underneath the robot's legs and leapt up onto its back.
"This little trick doesn't work on Cyborg anymore, but I bet it'll work just fine on you," said Red X, searching for a panel on the robot's back that would allow him to access its systems. "That's weird... there's no panel, maybe it's in a different place, or-"
With a violent tossing motion, the robot threw X off its back and clear across the corridor into another display, this one showcasing machine guns with computer chips in them. He slammed into a rack of guns, knocking it over and sending the weapons crashing to the floor, as well as knocking the rack itself into another rack. A domino effect soon ensued, and within seconds, all six racks of guns in the display were toppled over, with Red X leaning up against them, his back throbbing with pain.
The robot turned and lunged at Red X, who rolled out of the way just in time to avoid a hard metallic tackle.
"This thing is faster and stronger than me..." thought Red X, cautiously but quickly backing away from the robot as it dislodged itself from the gun racks and stood up, staring down X across a long, narrow straightaway. "All I've got going for me is my brain... that's gotta be good for something, right?"
X looked to his left and saw an exhibit filled with cardboard cutouts of soldiers that had television screens installed into the back of them. He looked to his right and saw another display containing several gun racks. Nothing here was going to help him... and the robot had started moving toward him again. He dashed out of the corridor and back into the side of the room, looking to his left again and seeing a large green tank placed in the corner.
"That tank has to be just a model... right?" thought Red X, rushing toward it with the robot following closely behind him. "Even if it is, it looks like it's still made of metal... it'll definitely give me some protection..."
The robot swung its fist at Red X, who was still just out of its reach. The thrown punch put some distance between X and the robot, and the thief capitalized, reaching the tank and hopping inside. The lid of the tank had been propped up, and X quickly reached up and grabbed the handles, hoping to yank it down before the robot had a chance to get inside and pull him out.
"Oh, no you don't..." said the old security guard, standing in an exhibit close to the tank and watching his robot start to climb onto the platform that the tank was sitting on. "If he closes up that tank, the robot will never be able to get in there..."
The lid of the tank was held up by two small black metallic bracers that had been attached to its sides and screwed into the lip of the tank's opening, keeping the lid from being closed. X noticed the bracers and quickly destroyed them with small exploding Xs, which enabled him to close the lid just before the robot would've reached its hand inside. Now crammed into the compact tank, a brief feeling of claustrophobia began forming within the thief's body, and the oppressive heat inside the machine was almost immediately too much for X to bear. He pulled off his mask, setting it down in the seat beside him and leaning back into his own seat, his arms leaning back as much as they could.
"Damn... how did I get myself in this situation?" Sanza said to himself, looking around at the inside of the tank and seeing the various buttons and levers on the front of the control console. "...if I didn't know better, I'd say this thing was actually... a real battle tank..."
He'd been inside of a tank only one other time in his life, when his class had taken a field trip to the Jump City Military Museum a few years ago. Every student had been given the opportunity to ride around inside of a real tank with a soldier, and though the tank's weapon system had been disabled, the tank was very much real... and looked almost identical to the one Sanza was in right now.
He placed his hand on the ignition control button and discharged a burst of electrical energy through the panel. Almost immediately, the inside of the tank and all of the buttons lit up, and Sanza felt a cool rush of air from the machine's air-conditioning system. The tank had become operational.
"Now that's more like it!" Sanza shouted, his eyes darting to the turret control lever. The robot was still standing on top of the tank, attempting to dislodge its lid and get inside... and Sanza immediately decided to give the robot an unwelcome surprise. He pressed the level to the right, spinning the turret around and slamming the side of the large gun into the robot's side. The impact knocked the robot off of the tank and to the ground on its back, sending more sparks flying out of the hole in the robot's neck.
Outside of the tank, the security guard holding the remote control recoiled in horror, shaking his head as the tank's turret slowly swung around and pointed right at him.
"Position your robot at a distance far enough to be shot at by the tank, or I'll shoot you instead," came a voice projected over the tank's speakers. Inside the tank, Sanza was speaking into a microphone that had dropped down from the ceiling, and while he wasn't really going to blow the security guard up, he hoped that his threat would force the guard into capitulating.
"I... I don't think you're really going to-"
"Move the robot away from the tank now, or I'll blow your ass up. Last chance, old man."
Shaking violently, the old man began to move the robot to a distance about fifty feet away from the tank. When the bot was at a suitable distance, the turret slowly moved away from the old man and pointed directly at the headless robot, aimed right at its chest.
"It's every kid's dream to fire a tank," thought Sanza, lifting the cover over a large, flashing red button at the center of the control panel. Chuckling to himself, he slammed the palm of his hand down on the button and watched as an artillery round shot out of the turret and blasted the robot to pieces, the explosion also large enough to destroy several exhibits and a large chunk of the wall of the convention center. The man who had once been controlling the robot was thrown to the ground by the force of the explosion, the remote control dropping from his hands. Satisfied, Sanza put his mask back on and opened the lid of the tank, slowly climbing out and standing on top of the machine. He looked over at the still-trembling guard, who was crawling backwards to put distance between himself and the tank. "You have a nice day, now."
Red X leapt down from the tank and walked right toward the LaredoSoft exhibit, which had remained intact even after all the fighting and the artillery blast from the tank. He still remembered exactly what he wanted.
He reached the display case holding the mysterious beige object, shattering the glass with an exploding X and pulling out the object from within. Taking one last look to see if any guards or MPs were following him, he then casually strode toward the large hole he'd made in the wall and exited the building with the beige object, leaving the still-activated tank behind, its main turret still smoking.
The old security guard inside the building certainly could've taken the tank for himself and gone after Red X... but after having fought the thief with a weaponized army robot, he'd done more than enough fighting for one day.
Especially considering that a man in his position shouldn't have to fight... fighting was something that should be left to real security guards. The man who'd tried to take out Red X with the humanoid military robot was not a security guard at all... he was the CEO of LaredoSoft, Nicholas Jarvin Sr., who was at the military expo merely to protect his investment... volunteering to undertake security duty of his own exhibit to ensure that it remained safe.
But the thief had gone for it anyway... and he'd taken the one thing that Jarvin and his partners would need to execute their plans for the destruction of the city. The old man took out his cell phone and began to report the grim news.
"Fred, I've got something to report that you're not going to like very much..."
On the other end, Dullahan had just begun preparing to leave his office for the night and return home to his spacious mansion in the Jump City suburbs... but Jarvin's call had come just minutes before he was going to leave.
"If this concerns the seismic generator..."
"The prototype's been taken... the exhibition prototype of the seismic generator has been taken by Red X. I'm not sure he even knows what it is... he just came here and took it from the convention center. The MPs that Sedaris placed here to assist me with guarding it were insufficient to stop him, and I wasn't able to stop him either."
An 'exhibition prototype'... Red X's thievery hadn't completely ruined the group's plans. In fact, their plans weren't damaged at all... Jarvin had kept the real generators at LaredoSoft headquarters.
"All he managed to steal was a weak device that would only create a localized event... if he even figured out how to activate it," said Jarvin, walking over to the damaged LaredoSoft exhibit and staring down into the shattered display case. "And if he does... then he'll become the first victim."
O-O-O
Red X stared down at the metallic object in his hands, walking down the sidewalk of a residential neighborhood about a mile from his house. Apartments, stores, and businesses lined the streets, but they were merely window dressing to one who lived in a big city... after a while, you learn to ignore them.
"This is why I keep stealing," thought Red X, a feeling of satisfaction going through his body as he looked down at the object in his hands, a complex piece of technology that might be worth hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. His first successful heist in several months had gone with nary a hitch... and again, like last time, the Titans hadn't even shown up. He had had to fight a military robot, but he'd defeated it by doing something that few people outside the army ever get to do. "I fired a freaking tank! Even if I hadn't gotten this thing, that would've been satisfying enough for me."
Imagining once more what it would have been like had Slade been at the other end of that turret, X couldn't help but crack a smile under his mask. He could only wonder how Rob was going to take the news tomorrow when he found out that the expo had been canceled on account of near-total destruction. He would probably wind up hating Red X... but then again, most people already did.
Red X didn't care... as far as he was concerned, only two people mattered... his mother and his sister. And... maybe Cleo. And almost certainly Starfire.
Just as he began to drift into another lust-filled daydream about the beautiful orange-skinned Tamaranian, his foot landed awkwardly in a large crack on the sidewalk. He fell forward, the beige object flying from his hands and landing on the ground next to X's head as he fell on his face.
"Shit..." thought Red X, slowly climbing to his feet and rubbing his forehead, grimacing in pain. "If that's God's way of telling me not to lust after Starfire, then he certainly got the point across..."
Red X didn't notice that the object now lying on the ground had begun to activate, several red and green lights on top of it now flashing brightly, on and off. God, it seemed, was about to send the thief another ominous sign... and the ground beneath Red X began to tremble.
O-O-O
This chapter's a bit shorter than the others, but I certainly hope that it was just as exciting! Also, I hope I get a lot of reviews... that would be really awesome.