I'm going away for a week or two on vacation so this is my last update before I leave. I'll finally reveal the full story of the Raptors' origins and use the one weapon I've negelected for quite sometime. By the way here's the usual disclaimer: The titans are not mine, the raptors and Mutants are mine. I'm sure you're sick of that by now.
MaxMrc: I'm glad you found the last chapter disturbing, that was the whole point of it
X-Black-Mage-X: I answered your question personally, but I just wanted to say that your parody of the Matrix with the Titans rocks and I think more people should look at it. Free Advertising!
Chapter 9: Early Morning Rush
Next morning was as usual as any day at Titans Tower. Except the fact that several hundred Raptorian soldiers were camped outside their front lawn and even more were sleeping away in any room they could find. The only Raptor up at the moment was Roger. He was really the morning person in his family. He always got up first so he could make breakfast for everyone. He was the only one his other Brother's trusted to make their meals. Even if Roger was denser then a sack of rocks he knew good food when he tasted it. However at the moment no one had arrvied in the kitchen and he was growing quite bored. So he did what any Texan would do, he brought out his sang a little while he started to cook.
"Home, home on the Range," he sung happily
"where the deer and the antelope play.
Where seldom is heard
A discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day."
It was at this moment that Lieutenant Ryan stumbled in looking rather exhausted and seemingly in a bad mood. Roger being Roger tried to cheer him up.
"Hey Lt." Greeted Roger "how was your sleep?"
"The usual crap private." Ryan told him "It sucked, hard."
"I know what will cheer you up sir." Roger told him "Becon and Eggs. The best way to wake up from a bad night."
Ryan walked on over to the table and sat down
"Alright, just pour me a glass of OJ with it." The commando asked
"Sure thing." Roger hurried on over to the stove.
Ryan wasn't in any mood to talk about what had happened last night with Beastboy and Raven. He didn't want to talk about it period. It was just more people wanting to know his life story and wanting to 'help' him. Whatever problem he was having he could solve it himself. He didn't need some blue cloak wearing goth and her green skinned buddy poking around inside his noggin' for it. He would have liked it if he never talked to either of them again. Not so much luck. Raven was a morning person and she was just approaching the table. The fact that Ryan had practically threatened to slice her throat last night didn't matter. She was not afraid of him, his state of mind maybe, but not him. So she sat down beside him. Ryan noticed but didn't seem to really care.
"So-" Raven began but was quickly stopped by Ryan with a swift...
"No."
"You didn't even hear my question." Raven told him
"I know what it is." Ryan shot back
Raven saw that he wasn't over the unauthorized intrusion into his mind. 'Why should he be', she thought, 'its not like I asked permission.' But she did what she thought had to be done, for the safety of her friends and the city. If Ryan really was going to snap she wanted to mend the damage. Apparently there was really nothing she could have done, at least not on the inside. If Ryan was to ever fully contain the monster inside of him she would need to know more about him before she could consider what she could do to help. The problem was all she really knew was that Ryan was an orphan. And she needed to work with that. But how could she when the person she was trying to help was being so stubborn.
"Listen," she said to Ryan "I'm sorry for what happened. But at the time I thought it was the best course of action."
Ryan just stuck out a rasberry at this
"You were going to snap, you were going to go borderline psychotic. I needed to fix the damage and I thought the best way to do that was from within."
"So what do you think now?" Ryan asked, he still wasn't looking at her
"I think you need to tell us more about you." She told him
"Why should I?" He asked "Whatever you 'thought' was wrong wasn't. Whatever is happening in my noodle I can handle alone. I don't need any help. Especially not from a human."
Raven could somewhat identify, she had never wanted to open up about her past either. She thought she could shoulder it all her own. It didn't work out that way. She thought that keeping her friends out of her horrible past would be better for them, that somehow she could figure a way out on her own. It didn't work out that way, but then again what does? She refused to tell the prophecy of her birth to her friends but all of it was too much to bare. She exploded into a rage that had her throwing Slade into wall after wall, if he had been alive at the time she may have killed him. When it was all over she saw her friends looking up at her. Their faces were in a state of shock. The only person who spoke up was Beastboy and even he was afraid of her at the moment. She could sense it. By not telling her friends of the danger of her birthright and trying to keep them away from it she risked the very possibility of alienating them. She came very close to it that night. But she was still in relative control, if Ryan snapped...she didn't want to think about it.
"I know you don't want to talk about your past." Raven told him "but keeping it a secret will not make things better. If it really does bother you so much just let it out. Tell me about your life, maybe I can understand."
Ryan finally looked over to her
"Listen to me pale chick." He said "I'm not some sad pathetic little Emo freak that goes around whinning about how much his life sucked. It doesn't matter what bad things happened in my past because telling you about them won't change the fact that they happened. The only thing I want to do is move forward, the past cannot be changed I know that. I've known it for years. My past is done, its over. The only thing that concerns me now is that it never happens to another child in this world again." Ryan moved closer to her face "Now shut the hell up and stop acting like my psychiatrist. I don't need to tell you anything. Just be happy I'm on your side."
With that Ryan turned his face forwards and accepted Roger's freshly made Eggs and Bacon breakfast with his OJ. Roger himself turned back to Raven.
"Anything you'd like for breakfast?" Roger asked
"No," she sighed "I can make it myself. I just need some herbal tea."
"Well you have to have something with that." Roger told her "How about some toast? Or maybe a waffle?"
Raven considered the offer and nodded
"Toast sounds fine."
Roger went back over to the toaster. Ryan in the meantime had already sucked up the last of his plate and left. Obviously she wasn't going to find out anything about Ryan while he was still mad at her. But she had a feeling that whatever Ryan wasn't telling them was connected in someway to the history of all Raptors. If only there was someone she could talk about this with. That's when she remembered Beastboy. She had a mind bridge with him. Right now she could tell he was just getting up, she felt that he was groggy. Probably couldn't get back to sleep. Beastboy eventually showed up at the table and sat down next to her.
'Good Morning' Raven thought over into Beastboy's head.
The green teen jumped at this for a meer second and looked over to Raven
'Dude,' He whined 'give me some ample warning next time. I'm new to this whole mind reading thing.'
'I wanted this to be a private conversation.' She told him
'Okay, sorry.' Beastboy thought over to her 'I guess I'm just still processing all that stuff that happened last night.'
'That brain trip we took was rather disturbing.'
'There was a demonic helicopter that laughed at us.' Beastboy reminded her 'Of course it was disturbing.'
'The thing is Ryan still isn't talking about it.' Raven explained
'So we have no idea what the devil chopper, the evil torture chair and the burning, dead body littered Los Angeles all means huh?'
'No,' She answered 'but I have a feeling we can find out from his fellow Raptors.'
'What makes you say that?' Beastboy asked
'On their first day here Rack told us that Raptors don't hold humans in high regard and Ryan is one of those Raptors. Also, if that chopper was from a distant memory it had to have been on Raptoria where these guys are from. And since Ryan isn't angry at his own species-' Beastboy cut off her train of thought
'Are you saying humans killed Ryan's parents?' Beastboy asked
'Its really the only possible solution.'
'But why would they? Hell, what were they doing on Raptoria with the Raptors at all?'
'Let's ask them.'
Roger returned to the Table with a plate of toast and some tea for Raven
"Roger," She began "can you tell us about Raptoria's history with humans?"
Roger raised an eyebrow at this
"I don't think I can explain it properly." He said shaking his head "I'm not the historian in my family like Snipe. He knows more about the beginning days of Raptoria and that whole Civil War bussiness."
Raven's eyes widened
"Civil War?"
"Yeah, you should ask Snipe about it. He loves giving history lectures." Roger turned to Beastboy "Hey Green Man, hows a about some Bacon?"
Beastboy seemed to turn greener at the prospect.
"No, I'm not a meat eater."
"Say what?" Roger said in a low voice
"I only eat meat substitutes."
"EW!" Roger cringed "Tofu, my one food weakness. That insideous invention by people who want to sacrafice quality for health. So what if I get 15 extra pounds at least I'm well fed. Curse you heathly magazines! CURSE YOU!" Roger turned back to the two teens who were now eyeballing him. "Oh, sorry. I don't like Tofu. That and I think I'm allergic to soy beans."
'I should of used that excuse a long time ago.' Raven thought
'I heard that.' Beastboy thought back
Snipe was outside in a small tent outside the tower looking through ammunition boxes when Beastboy and Raveb showed up to ask him about Raptorian history, specifically the Civil War Roger mentioned
"Not many people like to get into the grubby details of that time you know." Snipe informed "It was a proud moment in our history, even if it was one of our darkest. I've always found it fascinating though."
"So you can tell us about it?" Raven asked
"That depends, what do you want to know about it?" Snipe asked "The politics surrounding it, specific important battles, the weapons used, I read about it all quite extensively."
"Listen," Beastboy spoke up "I like history lessons as much as the next guy, but can you just give us the short version of things."
"In other words you just want what you can find in a stupid textbook is that it?" Snipe asked rather annoyed
"Yeah." Beastboy answered
Snipe sighed
"No one ever wants the intensely factual lecture."
"We're sorry Snipe," Raven said "but we don't have all day. That and Beastboy can't pay attention for more then an hour about one subject."
"Hey!" Beastboy said with a startle
Snipe shook his head
"Very well." He said pulling up a chair and sitting on it with his feet facing towards the back and his arms resting on the wooden frame. "Now, I suppose someone told you about how us Raptors were created."
Beastboy and Raven looked to each other and looked back to Snipe
"No." The both said
"Oh dear." Snipe sighed as he began "Very well. It all started back in the 1950's when a former weapons manufactuer and military hardware company known as SICO Industires decided to get out of the warfare bussiness and start a new. They moved their entire company to a small island where they started to clone..." Snipe now pointed to himself "...us."
"So you are like those dinosaurs from that movie." Beastboy said
"Sorta." Snipe explained "The scientists didn't make us all female. They made sure to provide us with enough genetic diversity so we could populate ourselves throughout the island. Also they played with our original clones brain matter somewhat to make us on par with their intelligence. The project was intially a large failure, until of course in 1953 when the first Raptor was succefully cloned."
"Wait a second!" Raven said raising her hand "How could your creators clone you that fast?"
"They were far better equipped and way better financed and sponsered then the Soviets with their experiments."
"How come we never heard of all this?" Beastboy asked
"The entire company was stationed on a remote carribbean island, it was an extremely secret project that only SICO employees knew of."
"So how come no one found out for over fifty years?" asked Raven
"When you run a successful militarily funded and well organized bussiness barely any one can find out. Whole families were sent to the island just to make sure they didn't spill the beans. Entire towns were set up just so people could live on the island for their entire lives."
"With you guys there as well?" Beastboy asked
"Well naturally they didn't just clone an entire species back into existance just to kill them off as well. Now can I please finish" Snipe said this rather annoyed and Beastboy slunk back into his chair. "Now over the generations we had eventually grown into a well organized island society. The scientists took care of us and we were pretty manageable as well. It was only until the night of May 22nd 1992 that we learned the truth. Some of the most prominent Raptors from across the island from all Raptor communities were called to a meeting by the head CEOs of the company. There they explained what they had decided to do with us. After long consideration they decided that we'd all be bought and sold to human zoos and amusement parks across the globe. SICO itself would set up its own little show park called 'Raptor Land' or some rot."
"So basically they said you were going to become slaves?" Beastboy asked
"Pretty much yes."
"But you were on the same level of intelligence as them," said Raven astonished "if they decided to make you circus attractions and sell you off as wild animals why did they bother to turn your brains into something more then animal?"
"You make a good point," Snipe told her "the thing was though what would be worth more? A giant ex-extinct cloned lizard or a giant ex-extinct cloned lizard who could talk?"
"I'd pay to see a talking lizard." Beastboy said rasing his hand and getting looks from both Raven and Snipe "I'll shut up."
Snipe returned to his lecture
"Also they hadn't at first decided to use us as sideshow freaks. They pretty much started the whole project based on military contracts and funding. When they stopped making weapons and put all their resources into us...well they got a bit tired with the whole, super soldier idea."
"I presume the Raptors didn't take this slave news very well?" Raven asked
"You don't know the half of it." Snipe spoke loudly "We were enraged! Apparently because we were just inventions and experiments to them we didn't even qualify as living creatures to them! We were just objects, ones that could be sold or bought just to make some human skin covered greedy corporate bastards some cash!" Snipe looked over to the two superhero teens and quickly calmed down "Um no offence."
"None taken." Beastboy told him
"So what happened next?" Raven asked
"Well according to eyewitness accounts, Scarface, he was a very important figure head in Raptor society, took his chair and threw it out a window and ordered all the other Raptors to run for it. The guards tried to stop them but they fought their way out. The Raptors at the meeting escaped to the jungle back to their villages and told them of the news. Naturally everyone felt quite used and angry at our former human friends. Scarface came up with the only viable solution. Since SICO was apparently in no mood to negotiate the rights of Raptors we rose up in a rebellion against them. With Scarface as our leader we turned on our former creators and sparked what is now known as the Raptorian Civil War."
"Why was this guy called Scarface?" asked Beastboy
"He had a nasty cut across his eye." Snipe told him
Beastboy could only respond with "Yeesh."
Raven was now certain that Ryan's parents were killed by humans during this Civil War. But she wondered what the cause was. Considering that SICO thought the Raptors were meer animals they probably didn't care much about killing their hard work.
"Snipe," Raven began "how did the Scientists react to everything?"
"Oh they were surprised to be sure. They never thought meer animals would rise up against them. Eventually they settled on solving the war in a bussiness manner. Clean the slate and start again. By now us Raptors were far past the clone stage and there would be no trouble creating fresh less intellingent and self aware Raptors."
"So what does that mean?" Beastboy wondered
"It means they adopted a policy of total extermination...on us."
"So they decided on just killing you all." Raven said
"Exactly," Snipe replied "there were mass grave sites, whole villages wiped off the map even. To count the death toll of Raptor civilians is a grim task. We believe it was somewhere within the 3000 numbers. Oh they captured some, but only if they really wanted information about rebel units."
"How did the war end?" Raven asked
"Well since I'm alive we won obviously." Snipe said jokingly
"And the Humans from SICO Industries?" Raven asked
"Those who didn't die in the war eventually died on the island. There were few actually surviving humans anyway. Although Scarface ordered that we not become like the ones who had murdered us and put strict penalties on anyone who tried to kill the last surviving humans, but in the end some of them just couldn't go on. The pains of war, destruction, all those years of fighting and finally losing it all, it was all too much to bare for some. Those who didn't become weak from 4 years of endless fighting and died peacefully commited suicide. The last human to ever die was actually one of our greatest allies in the war. A scientist who defected to our side and helped us defeat his former bosses. But even with him as evidence that not all humans are bad, scars are hard to heal. Many still remember the horrible mass graves and years of war against an enemy that wished to wipe us out and sell us as slaves. There are quite a few Anti-Human groups in Raptoria who don't want Humans coming to our island as tourists or immigrants. Its a rather sad thing really."
Beastboy bowed his head
"Well that explains why Reige doesn't like us." He said
"Oh please," Snipe said "Reige grew up in the post-war years, we were all 8 years old by the time it ended. He learnt a great deal of Anti-Human humour back then. He still believes that Humans are basically hairless apes who still pick bugs off each other's backs and fling poo."
"I'm surprised that not more Raptors hate us." Beastboy said "So that begs the question, why are you helping us out if we did all those terrible things."
"Our country isn't a place where we dwell on the mistakes of the past." Snipe explained "Instead we try to learn from them and move on. We do not associate all humans with SICO industires and in truth we are apart of the United Nations, so its kinda of the whole job discription about keeping the peace. So is that all you needed to know?"
"Yes," Raven told him "thank you Snipe."
"My pleasure." The Raptor said getting up from the chair "Now excuse me, I am rather hungry. I need something before the morning is out."
Snipe left the tent and the two Titans alone. When he was gone the two disscussed what happened
"Well looks like your hunch about Ryan's parents dieing because of humans was right." Beastboy acknowledged
"Problem is his memory only shows one chopper killing his parents." Raven explained "More like a drive-by killing than a actual massacre. Otherwise the pilot woud have killed Ryan too."
"So you think he just did it fun?" Beastboy asked "Cause that seems likely considering the chopper was laughing at-"
"Don't remind me." Raven interrupted, clutching her ears
"Sorry." Beastboy replied "That was a bad moment for you huh?"
Raven was now looking away rather sadly
"It was like seeing the charred ruins of Azarath again, only worse."
The flames, the buringing buildings, her once beautiful home lying in ashes. And there was nothing she could have done to stop it. Beastboy remembered how Raven explained what she saw that had made her so angry at Slade after the library
"Yeah, you told us about that." Beastboy said "Never thought the murder of two Raptors from a long time ago would hit so close to home either."
This made Raven jump in her seat. Did he just say either? As in it reminded him of something bad as well.
"What do you mean either?" Raven asked
"Well I mean," Beastboy stumbled "I meant it as I wouldn't have seen that kinda thing really effect you in a personal way."
"Beastboy, our minds are bridged remember?" She said unconvinced by his answer "I know when you are lying to me."
"What do you mean?" He asked
"Before that chopper showed up you said something about a waterfall and a boat and then you somehow deduced that Ryan's parents were dead. How did you figure that out?"
"Dumb luck?" Beastboy pleaded recieving a shake of Raven's head as an answer. Beastboy sighed "Listen, I really don't want to bring you down after all that talk about wars and stuff. Okay. Maybe when we have a better time to talk about some of the things I said during the whole mind trip-"
"That's another thing I've been meaning to ask." Raven told him "When I was knocked out by that shadow thing you said you 'Didn't want me to leave you again.' What did you mean by that?"
"You can read my thoughts," Beastboy told her "you tell me."
"It doesn't work like that" RavenExplained "I can only send and recieve messages, same with you. Just because we can read each others minds with telepathy doesn't mean I can just go inside your memory bank and find my answer. You have to let me find it."
"Privacy issues again?"
"Pretty much." Raven answered "I don't need you crawling into my head again without my permission."
"Okay, I have an idea." Beastboy began "How about we focus on Ryan's family issues first and then we can talk about what I meant by all that stuff in your head."
"Agreed, bussiness before pleasure." Raven said nodding
"Oh," Said Beastboy perching his eyebrow "so its would be a pleasure to know about all the dark mysterious secrets in my mind huh?"
Raven looked at him monotone
"Don't push it."
Recon had called everyone into the Ops center. He apparently was about to reveal some new plan that he and Robin had worked out last night that focused on capturing Karvisko.
"Twice now three Mutants have appeared in two of the Mutant's most heavily guarded facilities." Recon said using a laser pointer to highlight the three photos on the wall "Sergey, Colonel Aleksander and of course the one called Cockroach. Last night as you are all aware we came into contact with them again. Only this time we found the Cockroach with Karvisko himself. I believe Cockroach is now most certainly Karvisko's main operative for this operation."
"Are aware of what it is?" Starfire asked
"Uh, no actually still working on that." Recon admited "However I have formulated a plan of how to catch Karvisko and it involves are two other friends here." Recon pointed to Sergey and Alexsander "Like many mutants they have learned to use their extra features to aid them in battle. Aleksander can fly and Sergey has superior strenght to our own."
"Sir," Reige said putting up his hand "did you change your name to Captain Obvious?"
"I'm making a point Private." Recon explained
"Well can you get to it please?" Reige asked immediately recieving a smack on the head from Rack. "OW!"
"Next time shut it when you get to far ahead of yourself." Rack told him
"Thank you Sargeant." Recon complied before returning to the board "Now as I was saying, Sergey and Aleksander must know something about Karvisko's plans. I doubt that either will give up the information however."
"What makes you say that?" Asked Cyborg
"Sergey is a nationalist apparently," Recon explained "he'd never do something to rat out his commanding officer. One which he idolizes I might add. He didn't say anything to us in the short time we first enocuntered him that could reveal Karvisko's plans, other then he was hoping the General was going to take charge. We can't confirm that is precisely Karvisko's plan. Even if it was we don't know how he's going to do it."
"Let's just find and capture him them. Get him to talk." Rack suggested
Recon shook his head
"Sergey may be an officer but I have a feeling he'd rather die in a prison for war crinimals then surrender Karvisko to us."
"And Aleksander?" Raven asked quivering at the name
"He's not exactly what we'd call a perfect well of information." Recon explained "He'd probably just lead us straight to Karvisko if we gave him his own blood donor clinic, however because of his mental state the intel wouldn't be reliable."
"So we're stuck huh?" Reige asked
"Not nessecarily." Recon said raising his finger "Robin came up with an idea."
Robin sat up and walked over to the board to face the others
"We may not be able to get anything useful out of the two," Robin explained "but we can find something on the people around them."
"Namely their aids." Recon added "Anyone who is remotely connected to either Sergey or Aleksander would most likely know something about Karvisko's plan. And wouldn't you know it, but we were able to track a radio message sent by Aleksander to a one Captain Vrisnakov. He's basically that overgrown bat's man in the field."
Raven's knowledge of Aleksander and his sick dream of sucking her dry made her worrisome. And with the way he was so obssessed about it was even more troublesome. She had a feeling there was something more.
"What did the message say?" Raven asked
"Oh, that." Recon stuttered "Well nothing important, just that he was suppose to report to a Mutant communications base set up at a construction site and-"
Raven rose from her seat and cut him off
"What did it say Recon?" Raven asked more demanding then before realizing Recon was leaving something out. Reluctantly Recon explained futher to her.
"The message also said that Aleksander wanted all troops under Varisnakov's command to be on the look out for you."
Raven looked away from Recon and off to the side.
"Are you okay?" Beastboy asked
"I'm fine." Raven said aloud, however in Beastboy's mind came something else 'I just have a crazy bloodthirsty psychopath after me thats all.'
'Relax,' Beastboy's thoughts tried to calm her 'that dude is a pushover. We'll beat him easily.'
'You're sure about that?' Raven asked mentally
"Yeah duh!' He exclaimed 'Its been easy so far.'
Raven returned to her seat.
'Thanks' she uttered to Beastboy
'No problem.'
Recon returned to his plan as soon as Raven sat down
"I'm sure Aleksander is not at the site himself. So we have no worries there." He seemed to be saying this to Raven most of all "The main objective is this. Find Varisnakov and bring him in. With any luck he could very well know something important about 'The Red Path' and Karvisko's ultimate plans." Recon brought up a diagram of the construction site. "We'll surround the area from all sides from the ground, then we'll land a team up here on the roof of the area. The building is 65 complete and most of the flooring is in, just be careful of some less stable areas. We'll have some of our choppers create a no fly zone around the area. That way they'll be no way for the Captain to escape. We grab him and get out, simple as that.
"When is anything that simple?" Asked Snipe sarcastically.
The attack plan was working so far. The building had been surrounded from all sides effectively trapping the Mutants inside. The Turagut Brothers, Ryan and the Titans had been inserted to the Rooftop. Recon stayed on the ground to oversee the operation in full. Most everyone was foucsed on the task at hand. Ryan, not so much. He was too busy lying on the ground like a dog trying to scratch the back of his head with his foot, apparently just for the hell of it.
"Almost...there...just a few...more inches..." His toe claws touched his neck and Ryan sighed with relief "Ah yeah, that's awesome."
Robin was not amused
"Could you do this another time," Robin said to the Raptorian calmly but not hiding his displeasure "like say when we're not a mission."
"Oh shut up you little bird-monkey," Ryan said still scratching his head "I'll do whatever the hell I want when I want."
"Bird-monkey? What does that even mean?" Robin screamed
"I believe it because you're named after a bird and you're ancestors are descendant from monkeys." Snipe explained, Robin just looked at him angirly "What? You asked what the phrase meant."
"Can we just go?" Robin asked through his teeth.
"Well someone is snippy today." Ryan commented getting off the floor
"I just want to catch this guy and get back to the tower." Robin explained to Ryan "And with any luck the capture will help get this situation under control and once that happens you can leave."
"Yeah and your city can return to the ever preverent boringness of peace and tranquility." Ryan exclaimed mockingly "How nice for you."
"Just move." Robin told the Raptor.
"Fine," Ryan said cocking his pistol "I have mutants to kill anyway."
Ryan turned around and approached the door to the building. It opened suddenly and Ryan fired. The Mutant who was shot fell down the stairwell he had just walked up moments before. Ryan turned to the other and signalled them to follow him.
"We're following a crazy person." Robin said "Great."
"You get used to it after awhile." Rack said trying to cheer him up before adding "Sorta."
Several floors down the construction site, the team to a small uncompleted hallway.
"Okay we'll split up and track down Captain Varisnakov." Robin ordered "First one to find him makes it to the rooftop to get him out of here."
"Why should I listen to you?" Ryan asked "I outrank you."
"I'm not even in the army!" Robin told him
"Exactly." Ryan rebutted
Robin just rubbed his forehead
"Fine!" Robin shouted to Ryan "Do whatever the hell you want! I don't really care!"
"Works for me!" Ryan pulled out his machine gun and ran off down the hall.
"Oh boy." Roger said viewing the spectacle.
"Should someone not go with him?" Starfire asked
"Good idea Starfire." Rack replied, he then nudged Reige "Reige go with Ryan and help him out."
"WHAT?" Reige screamed "Why me?"
"Because you said you liked watching him explode stuff." Rack reminded him
"Yeah but from behind a lead sheild and from a safe distance away." Reige explained "Can I bring along one of the superhero freaks at least?"
"Perhaps I should send one of my teammates with you Reige." Responded Robin "We need to make sure Ryan doesn't kill our target."
While most of the Titans didn't say anything to each other with their mouths at this suggestion Beastboy and Raven were talking a lot to each other themselves, in their minds at least.
'I think one of us should go with him.' Raven thought to Beastboy
'I don't think he's over the whole brain thing from last night Rae,' Beastboy reminded her 'he probably still doesn't trust us.'
'Then we should at least try to get him to trust us more.' Raven told him 'We need to let Ryan know that he can trust us with his story.'
'I still don't understand why we should bother.' Beastboy told her 'I mean I wanna know about what that stuff in his head means too but do you really think him sharing his life story would help him?'
'I'm not sure but we have to at least try.'
'Okay, but why don't you go with him?' Beasboy asked
'Because he practically hates me for the whole incident we had last night.'
'Good point.'
Beastboy walked up to Robin
"I'll go with Reige to look after Ryan."
"You sure Beastboy?" Robin asked
"Positive." He replied quickly sending a thought message to Raven 'By the way, I'm really only doing this because you asked me to.'
Raven nodded in silence at this.
When Beastboy and Reige had left to follow Ryan Robin led the remaining Titans and Raptors to the other sections of the building. They soon came across three elevator shafts that were still incompleted. The doors were stuck open and the elevators appeared to be stuck one floor below.
"Guess we won't have to worry about any Mutant coming down from here." Rack observed
"Don't be so sure." Cyborg told him looking through his infared setting on his robotic eye. "I'm detecing multiple heat signatures coming down the shaft."
"But the Elevators do not move, how is this possible?" Starfire asked
The question was answered when a platoon of mutant soldiers slid down the elevator cords and landed on the roofs of the elevators themselves. One by one they started pilling out of the shafts as the Turaguts provided cover fire to allow them and the others to fall back.
"Why does stuff like this always happen?" Rack asked as he ducked behind some boxes.
The Titans fired their projectiles at the Mutants as well, but they the enemy soldiers kept pilling out of the shafts. After awhile they seemed to stop coming and most of them appeared to be either dead or knocked out by the Titans or Turaguts.
"Is it over?" Roger asked peering his head up.
"No," Raven said "I sense more coming down."
"From the elevator shafts?" Robin asked
"From everywhere."
Ryan led Reige and Beastboy through the onslaught of mutant soldiers as the progressed throught the uncompleted building. Ryan shoved most of the through the wall-less sides of the building. Beastboy and Reige didn't seem to have much to do since Ryan was hogging all the action. In a brief lull in the fighting Beastboy tried to talk to Ryan.
"Um dude, do you have to push almost everyone off the building?" Beastboy asked
"I like watching them splat on the ground." Ryan told him
"Sorry I asked." Beastboy responded "So anyway I was wondering-"
Ryan cut him off with a 'sush' and brought his head over to a thin piece of dry wall. He seemed to be listening to something. Beastboy looked over to Reige.
"What the heck is he doing?" The changlling asked
"I think he heard something." Reige told him "And for the record kid, don't talk to Ryan about why he does crazy things. I know most of it is illogical overkill but he thinks his reasons for doing it are normal."
"He thinks that it's normal to like hearing people go splat?" Beastboy asked astonished
"Hey don't ask me why he does." Reige said "I ain't a psychiatrist. I just repeat what they tell me."
"Shut up." Ryan said in a loud annoyed whisper towards the two "I'm trying to listen here."
Ryan placed the side of his head back up to the drywall. A few seconds later he smiled and took out EARL and and reved the chainsaw up. He plunged the saw into the drywall and sliced his way through to the other side. He then pulled up his shotgun and fired several rounds into the room. Then it appeared that he ahd grabbed someone as Reige and Beastboy heard a sudden scream and a crash. The two ran in to the room through the newly opened hole and saw a handful of mutant soldiers sprawled out dead on the floor and one having his head pushed up against a small table with a radio on it by Ryan. The mutant was dressed in a traditional overcoat that many of them had already seen. He had no Gas mask on and Beastboy could clearly see the face what appeared to be a Parasaurolophus with two small horns on it nose. The mutant's helmet, that was teatering of his head, apparently ranked him as a Captain. This was Varisnakov
"Ha." Ryan laughed "I found him first! He's my prisoner! Eat that!"
"Dude, no need to gloat." Beastboy told him
"Just phone in the bird-brain and tell him we got our man." Ryan ordered pushing the mutant's head further against the table
"I demand that I be treated fairly as according to my rights as a prisoner of war as applied by the Geneva convention." Varisnakov demanded as he felt the increasing amount of pressure on his skull.
"Oh shut it asshole," Ryan responded "I don't give a damn about that stupid peice of paper. Theres only one thing standing between you and horrible pain and that my mood. Don't make me cranky."
Beastboy spoke up quickly before Ryan could do anything else.
"Recon wants him alive remember."
Ryan looked at the shapeshifter and then back to the mutant. He pulled him up and walked him ovber to the hole.
"Move it," He shouted to the mutantg before turning back to the other two "we're headed to the roof come on."
Reige and Beastboy followed
"Way to get him to calm down." Reige commented
Beastboy just smiled
"Insane or not he still has orders."
The fight had been brutal but the Titans and three other Turaguts had emerged victorious from the onslaught of Mutant soldiers. The Raptors we busy checking the bodies for any still living mutants and preparing to transport them down as prisoners. Robin looked quite pleased at howm they were able to hold their positions. Then he recieved a call on his communicator from Beastboy.
"Robin," The Green Titan said "we got Varisnakov and we're back on the roof. We signaled the chopper and are headed home."
"Good work Beastboy." Robin acknowledged "We'll clean up the rest of the building and meet you back at the tower. Robin out."
The others also heard the news
"Glorious," Starfire shouted "our mission is accomplished and our victory over our enemies is now assured."
"I wouldn't say that," Rack replied "but at least we can go home soon."
"You know," Snipe spoke suddenly "this was way too easy."
"Why do you always have to kill the mood?" Roger asked
But Snipe was right, something was amiss. Raven could sense it too. This entire operation had been way too simple, even with all the opposing forces. She knew something bad was going to happen. She could feel it and what scared her most is that she felt something bad was going to ahppen to Beastboy. She didn't know why, but she just did and it troubled her.
'Please be okay. Promise me you'll be okay.' Raven thought hoping Beastboy would hear her somehow.
Beastboy thought he heard Raven say something his mind a few seconds ago. He made it out as 'Please be okay. Promise me you'll be okay' but why would she say that? Beastboy sent out a small response 'I'll be fine, promise, why?' He never got and answer because Reige suddenly called over to Beastboy.
"Come on man!" The Raptor cried "There's a Yankees game at three."
Beastboy ran over to the chopper and climbed in as it lifted off.
"You know I can fly right?" He asked to Reige
"Well yeah but this way you don't have to flap your arms." Reige explained
Beastboy nodded at the idea, still he felt somewhat uneasy he didn't know why. Perhaps it had something to do with Raven's message. That's when he remembered who Varisnakov worked for. He turned to the captive Captain.
"Tell me about Colonel Aleksander."
The Mutant remained silent
"That vampire wannabe wants to suck my friend dry and you're going to tell me why."
The mutant didn't say anything
"Spill it," Beastboy shouted "he has some kinda plan he's gonna use to get Raven doesn't he?"
Finally the Mutant spoke
"So you went through all this trouble to find out what plans my commanding officer has in store for a girl that he wants a drink from?" Varisnakov mocked "What a waste of army resources."
"What is Aleksander planning?" Beastoby asked again
"How the hell should I know how that nut brained bat thinks?" Varisnakov asked back "He's out of his very mind! Whatever plans he has in store for your friend you might as well accept them as inevitable. He never stops at something until he gets what he wants. He's going to suck her blood and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. You might as well just start planning her funeral cause with all the men he has looking for her she's going to end up his snack."
Beastboy couldn't stand the captain's talk anymore. He delivered a swift punch to the mutant's jaw effectively knocking him to the ground.
"Shut up, I won't let that happen!" Beastboy shouted "We'll beat your stupid colonel and every other mutant in this city. I won't let him hurt her."
"You don't understand Colonel Alexsander," Varisnakov said sititng up "he is relentless. The only thing on his mind is sucking the blood of that Raven girl he's been ordering me and almost every other mutant soldier here to be looking out for. Its how things work with him."
"Well why her?" Beastboy asked "Why her of all people?"
"You'd need to ask him yourself, all he ever told me was that he wanted her and her alone. And he'll get this Raven, you'll see."
"Not if I have anything to say about it." Beastboy told him
"Too bad you probably don't have long to live." Varisnakov said
This last comment startled Beastboy.
"What do you mean?"
A lone Mutentican sargeant stood on a rooftop as he watched a helicopter fly over head, the very one he'd been ordered to keep an eye out for. He grabbed his radio.
"Colonel," He said into the radio "I've spotted the chopper that left the construction building with Varisnakov inside."
"You have your orders Sargeant," Colonel Aleksander spoke from the other line "We cannot permit Varisnakov to reveal anything that may ruin General Karvisko's plan. Fire at will."
"Yes sir."
The Mutant took aim at the helicopter with his RPG and put his finger on the trigger.
Suddenly something caught the pilots eye as he heard and a blast that sounded like a rocket taking off. He looked over just in time to see a rocket whizzing straight at them.
"RPG!" He shouted alerting everyone in the chopper
The helicopter took evasive action but it was too late. The chopper was hit in the tail balde by the rocket and the aircraft began to spin out of control.
"Mayday, mayday," the pilot shouted thorugh the intercom "Chopper 02 going down, I repeat we are going down!"
"I told you! We will all die together now!" Varisnakov screamed
"AHHH!" Reige screamed through the spinning dive "Quick you stupid green tofu eating hippie do something!"
"I can't fly!" Beastboy told him "I'd never be able to escape the dive of this helicopter! Its spinning and falling too fast!"
"I don't wanna die like this man! I don't wanna be there when I die!" Reige screamed
But through all this mayhem Ryan was calmly sitting in his buckled seat humming.
"Sir, this isn't a good time!" Reige told the Lieutenant
Ryan now began to sing
"There was Blood was upon his Visor and his Brains were in his chute.
His Intestines were a dangling from his paratrooper suit.
They picked him up by his vest and poured him from his boots.
He ain't gonna jump no more!"
"Dude," Beastboy screamed holding to the handle of the chopper's open door "This is so not the time to be singing that kinda song!"
Ryan paid no attention
"Gory, Gory what a hell of a way to die!
Gory, Gory what a hell of a way to die!
Gory, Gory what a hell of a way to die!
We ain't gonna jump no more!"
The helicopter crashed into the ground and began to spin around wildly. Beastboy saw Reige hit the roof of the chopper and Ryan knock himself against the wall. Beastboy's last vsion however was of the his face colliding with the window of the seat of the chopper's co-pilot and then darkness. As he slowly drifted off into his sub-concious he coul only hear one thing besides the echoing of Ryan's "Gory" song was the last thing he heard Raven say to him before he got on the chopper. 'Please be okay.' The question now was could he keep his promise that he would.
I can't believe one of my favourite movies is Black Hawk Down and I forgot the RPG! I hope this cliffhanger won't be too stressful for you while I'm away and I promise I'll update as soon as possible when I get back. Until then read and review. See ya then.