Chapter 10: Titan Down
Panic had stricken the team still at the construction site. Although the area was now secure and the mission compeleted a new problem had arose. The chopper carrying their prisoner had been shot down before their eyes and had crashed to the ground, along with everyone on it. And 'everyone' included a certain green changling and two Raptorian soldiers, one of whom was commando. Needless to say Captain Recon wasn't happy, his mission had just lost its intiative.
"Please tell me that did not just happen." Recon asked to no one in particular still looking at the trail of smoke left in the sky where the Chopper was.
Snipe was the only one to actually say anything.
"Sir," He began "I'm afraid to be sarcastic at this point would be just plain lying."
Robin wasn't amused at all, he was desperately trying to contact Beastboy on his communicator.
"Beastboy come in."
No answer
"Beastboy, come in, what is your status?"
Nothing but Static
"Come in Beastboy! Answer me!"
Everything remained silent. Robin grew annoyed with the fruitless attempt at communication and threw the communicator tot he ground. He then turned to Cyborg.
"Do you have a fix on his location?" He asked
"What do you think I've been trying to do?" Cyborg returned slamming the lid on his arm phone. "Either he's turned it off or the thing is broken. Considering the circumstances, its probably broken."
"Please," Starfire pleaded "tell me our friend is not dead."
Cyborg and Robin couldn't answer her
"Tell me he is not dead." She said louder "Tell me Friend Beastboy has survived and is undamaged!"
Robin shook his head
"I can't."
Starfire almost was on the brink of tears. Rack in the meantime was already past that line on the other emotional high, anger.
"How the hell did this happen!" He screamed "How did they know which chopper the target was on? How?"
"They must of spotted Varisnakov getting in on the roof." Recon explained "Then they just had spotters look for where the chopper was."
"But why did they wish to harm one of their own?" Starfire asked
"Obviously to make sure he didn't spill his guts."
Starfire was confused
"Would not spill his guts happen if he was exploded?"
"I mean they didn't want Varisnakov telling us any information." Recon explained further.
Starfire was shocked at this. The Raptors themselves were not. And Rack wasn't dwelling on the possible loss of Varisnakov at all and was getting tired of the disscussion
"Enough of this!" Rack shouted to the Captain "My brother has been shot down! Dozen of 'Red Path' Mutants could be headed for him as we speak!"
"We're going to Sargeant." Recon told him "We'll leave as soon as we figure out a plan."
This didn't satisfy Rack
"Screw the plan! I'm ready to go now!"
Recon stepped up to the non-com
"I understand Reige is your Brother Rack, but perhaps you should realize that you aren't the only one who wants to find him. If we don't know what we're up against we might as well be walking into a ambush out there. Until then you will stand down!" Recon looked at the unresponsive Rack "That was an order Sargeant, I expect you to answer it with a reply."
Rack looked him square in the eyes.
"Sir, yes, sir." Rack said in an angry whisper
Rack walked away from the captain, still with an expression of anger on his face. Robin then arrived at Recon's side.
"So what are we going to do?" He asked
"Simple," Recon explained "we find a way to get to the crash site. From what I can tell the chopper crashed in the middle of enemy held territory."
"Then we find Beastboy and Reige and get out." Robin added
"What about Ryan?" Recon asked, realizing he left someone out
"Personally," Robin told him "I don't care wether or not he is alive."
"That's a little cold isn't it?" Recon asked
"I don't care." Robin answered "He's a dangerous psychopath and the world wouldn't miss him if he was dead. I certainly wouldn't."
"Listen Robin," Recon said facing the young teen "I understand you don't like Ryan, but I would suggest that you put your personal feelings about him aside. He is still on your side."
"I'm certain that's a good thing." Robin told him
Before the two could continue the conversation, Roger suddenly came running down to Recon panting.
"Uh, sir." He began "We have problem. The green kid is on TV."
"What?"
A short walk away Recon and Robin followed Roger to a TV set where the others had gathered. A new report was on about the helicopter crash.
"As we are all aware," The annoucer began "yesterday the Terrorist group known as 'The Red Path' invaded Jump City in early afternoon yesterday. The group has taken over several blocks of the city and is now registered a war zone. Raptorian peacekeeping forces are inside the city now trying to quell the situation but as we have been told another problem has developed. Sources have confirmed that a Raptorian transport chopper was shot down just a few minutes ago. Reports of who was in the chopper are sketchy at best, but we have been told that resident Superhero 'Beastboy' of the Teen Titans was one of the people on board. It is unkown if Beastboy has survived. Here is camera footage from one of our cameras on the scene as the chopper crashed to the ground."
It was weird watching what happened only minutes ago happen once again before their eyes. As everyone stared at the pictures of the chopper spinning wildly and careening towaards the ground once more. And by now Recon was even more angry.
"Who the hell told the news about this?" He got on his radio immediatetly "I want to know who the hell told the media that Beastboy was on that chopper! I don't need city residents thinking that one of their resident superheroes is probably dead!...I don't if you have other work to do! Drop it and find out what idiot told the newspeople about this now!" He quickly turned off the radio. "Great! My day couldn't get any worse!"
At this moment Starfire noticed something, Raven wasn't anyway in front of the TV.
"Where is Raven?" She asked. She looked around and saw Raven with her hood up staring off into the distance where the chopper had crashed. She floated over to her. "Friend, are you alright?"
Raven didn't answer her, she only looked over her shoulder silently and returned to her staring
"I understand what troubles you friend, I am also worried for Beastboy. But do not fear I am sure he is unharmed."
Raven took off her hood and looked over to Starfire.
"I know," She said "I am not worried about Beastboy."
"You are sure?" Starfire asked
"Positive."
Starfire slinked away, what she didn't know was the reason why Raven was not worried. She felt no great overwhelming loss, no horrible pain, no terrible feeling of dread or suffering. This wasn't happening because the mind bridge was not severed. Which, as Raven knew, could only mean one thing. And that one thing was what kept her thoughts at ease.
'He's alive.'
Miles away a chopper was lying broken upon the ground, its blades broken and its nose sticking into the concrete of the street. It's tail was gone and its windows smashed. It was wrecked beyond all repair. A small mound of dirt lurched up from the exposed ground that had once been blocked by concrete and a green groundhog digged itself out of the dirt. Looking up it saw that the chopper had crashed in an a small square alleyway and had taken a portion of a nearby building with it. Finally getting its body out of the ground completely, the groundhog morphed back into Beastboy.
"I don't wanna go on another rollercoaster ride like that for at least," Beastboy counted on his fingers and then held up two "Two months, yeah thats okay I guess." Then Beastboy remembered that he wasn't the only one in the chopper. "Oh no." Beastboy ran back to the chopper and morped into a lowland gorrilla. He tore off the roof of the aircraft and peered in. Reige was lying flat on his face whle his body up against the back wall. Ryan looked completely peaceful resting against his seatbelt. Both were still breathing. Reige fell over forwards and landed on his back.
"Ow." He said with a moan "Whats the number of that truck?"
"Oh thank god you're alive." Beastboy said as he changed back "You okay?"
Reige opened one great big eye and looked straight at Beastboy
"Would you just help me up already hippie?" He ordered
Beastboy smiled a little
"Yeah you're okay." He said lifting the Raptorian to his feet.
"Okay refresh my memory," Reige began rubbing the back of his head "What happened?"
"There was an RPG, it hit us and we crashed." Beastboy summed up "Hows that?"
"That works." Reige turned back to Ryan who was still sleeping in the chair and then back to Beastboy "You wanna wake him?"
"Yeah, wake the guy with the nickname 'Insano Commando.'" Beastboy repeated back "How stupid do I look?"
Reige just smirked
"I was hoping that the Marijuana smoke fried your brain enough to actually consider waking him up."
"For the last time I don't do drugs!" Beastboy screamed
"Sure you don't...hippie."
"Whatever," Beastboy said as he quietly added "right-winged fart."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Screamed Reige at the top of his lungs
"You heard me." Beastboy returned "You're a right-winged fart."
"I'll have you know that just because I consider myself a conservative New Yorker does not mean I'm a fart!" Reige told him
"Well you don't see me calling you that all the time!" Beastboy yelled back "So why don't you just stop thinking I'm hippie cause I'm not!"
"Fine, just keep your nasty vegetarian junk away from my meat munching mouth." Reige added
"Okay I guess." Beastboy replied. Eventually he extended his hand to the Raptor "Truce?"
Reige took a look at the hand and grasped it with his
"Truce." Reige told him "But you're still veggie freak."
"And you're still a jerk." Beastboy retorted
Reige just smiled confidently
"Agreed."
They were both suddenly interrupted by another voice
"How touching. Now can you get me the hell out of here!"
The two turned to a now awake Ryan struggling with the harness that kept him secure in his seat.
"Hold on sir." Reige said sliding down and cutting the restraints. Ryan eventually clambered up and dusted himself off.
"Looks like we made it huh?" said Beastboy
"Not everyone." Ryan told him "Did you check the pilots?"
Beastboy clambered down to the cockpit and saw both Raptorian pilots lying against the controls dead. There was also a third body, Varisnakov.
"Oh man, this isn't right." said Beastboy looking at the three bodies
"Bring up the mutant." Ryan ordered
Beastboy didn't like touching the dead body, but he did as he was told and clambered the mutant back to the Raptors as his tiger form. He pulled Varisnakov out of the chopper by his uniform with his teeth and Ryan immediately bent down to look at it.
"Great." Reige said looking at the dead mutant "Mission failed. Just perfect."
"Not entirely." Ryan said looking through the Mutant's clothes.
"What are you doing?" Beastboy asked "You're touching a dead guy!"
"I'm looking for anything to help me find out what his friends are planning." Ryan explained before he shouted "Got something."
"What?" Both Reige and Beastboy asked
Ryan held out a small book to them, a book with the title "How to make your own suitcase bomb."
"Oh you got be friggin kidding me." Reige said "They're building a bomb! They come all this way just so they can build a bomb!"
Ryan flipped to page that apparently bookmarked by Varisnakov. It was list of possible explosive elements that could be used in a suitcase bomb and one word was highlighted out of all of them. But Ryan had a problem.
"What the hell does this say?" Ryan asked to his two compatriots "Xylophone, Xinoxous, xytofoam..."
"Xinothium?" Beastboy asked suddenly
"Oh yeah, thats it." Ryan exclaimed "Couldn't make it out with this freaky X spelling. You know about it?"
"Yeah," Beastboy told him "we've had a few run-ins with it." Beastboy now remebered Red X and all his Xinothium based gadgets in his suits. Specifically the ones that wrecked his hair.
Ryan kept reading.
"Xinothium...highly unstable...extremely dangerous...must be handled with care... Oh here it is," Ryan exclaimed "Says here that if used properly and refined correctly a Xinothium core can be used in conjunction with an explosive to level an entire building or, depending on the explosive used to trip the core, an entire city." Ryan shut the book "Sweet, like that arm thingy from the 'Predator' films. I need me one of those."
"Why come to Jump City then?" Reige asked
"I heard awhile back there was some kinda evil China man who tried to disintergrate Jump with a giant Xinothium laser cannon." Ryan told him "Guess they thought they could get it here."
"Yeah Professor Chang," Beastboy commented "stood no chance against the Titans. We took him down and sent his butt straight to prison."
"Wow, Interesting" Ryan said, then he paused for a short second "I don't care."
Beastboy just frowned at the Commando
"We need to get this info back to command." Ryan told them "Anyone have a radio?"
Reige shook his head but Beastboy raised his hand.
"I have a communicator, I just need to open it and..." When beastboy pulled out the communicator he noticed that it was shattered "Oh just great."
"Looks like we're on our own. New mission, wait here for the others to find us and head back home."
"Cool with me." Beastboy sais "I'm good at waiting."
Suddenly a bullet slung past their heads and Ryan pulled out his pistol
"Get down!" He screamed as he shot at the Mutant on the rooftop across from them. Another Mutant appeared with an RPG. Ryan shot him just as the Mutant fired and the rocket flew right up into the sky.
"Okay newer mission." Ryan said quickly "Get the hell outta here before more of those guys show up!" Ryan began to run out of the alley.
"That works with me too!" Beastboy said running after him
"Me three!" Reige shouted running after them as well.
Riding along inside a large armoured transport vehicle Raven couldn't help but feel somewhat worried. She knew Beastboy wasn't dead, but she felt his preseance moving away from the helicopter's crash site and to somewhere new. The problem was this, how could she tell the others this without telling them about the mind bridge and why she gave it to Beastboy in the first place.
'I hope he holds up somewhere where we can find him easily." She thought
Ryan led Reige and Beastboy through the seemingly endless streets filled with burning cars. These were obivously roadblocks to keep the Raptors out. Ryan knew they needed to find a place to hold out but he didn't know where to go. He didn't know this city, but he knew someone who did.
"Hey green man," He asked to Beastboy "Is there a place nearby we can use as a hiding spot till our friends show up?"
"I'm not sure, which streeet are we on?" Beastboy asked
Reige looked over to a sign near the corner.
"I think its second and fifth, or something." He said
"Hey there's a movie theatre not too far from here!" He exclaimed "Its got awesome popcorn."
"We'll head there." Ryan told him
"But how will they know where to find us?" Reige asked
"I'm working on that part." Ryan told them
Reige just slapped his forehead as the Lieutenant continued on.
"Is he always this way?" Beastboy asked
"I think he makes this stuff up as he goes along." Reige told him.
A few minutes later they arrived at the domeded Movie theatre, affectionately titled the Superplex and then they noticed that it was well guarded by a couple of Mutant soldiers.
"Well so much for this place." Beastboy exclaimed, he then recieved a tap on the shoulder from Reige
"Tell that to him." He said pointing
Beastboy looked out and saw Ryan sneaking up behind a car.
"What is he doing!" Beastboy shouted in a hushed whisper
Ryan unholstered his grenade launcher and aimed it at the guards in front of the door. He fired a round and watched as the two of them exploded in a blaze of fire. Ryan lept up over the car and ran head long to the front door screaming bloody murder and waving EARL around like the mad man he was with one hand while holding his M60 in the other.
"I have a freaky feeling that he wants us to follow him." Beastboy said
"Oh well," Reige said cocking his shotgun "Its go time."
Reige and Beastboy ran out of cover and straight to the front door. When they got inside they found the walkway to the ticket counter littered with bodies and Ryan still firing madly out into the main room. The two stepped over the bodies and past several blood stained posters to the giant circular room in the middle of the complex, with the concession stand right in the middle and several smaller affilated franchised restuarants off to the sides. Beastboy looked of to his behind and saw an arcade as well. Which Ryan was firing head long into and acting like the nut he was.
"Light gun? I don't need no stinking light gun!" He laughed sinisterly. Ryan then ran up the escalator to second floor and called back to the other two "I've cleared most of this area. finish off the lower theatres. I'm gonna give this suckas a horror show they'll never forget!" Ryan continued to laugh as he ran off into the theatre closest to him at the top of the escalator.
"Hope this place is insured." Beastboy said as he heard the shooting from upstairs
"Good one." Reige said chuckling a bit.
"Well at least someone gets it." Beastboy said
A few blocks away from the Helcopter's crash site, the APC leading the way to the downed chopper was fighting against several mutant terrorists as they tried to stop the the small convoy trying to get to the crash site. The heavy gun on top of the APCs were enough to keep the enemy at bay.
"More of them are headed to the crash site then I thought." Robin said from his seat hearing the commotion on the otherside of the thick steel walls.
Recon in the meantime was arguing on the radio once more
"I don't care about clearance from JCPD, I have men down in enemy territory and a whole bunch of bad guys breathing down my neck. I need to know what is happening and I need to know now!" A short pause followed soon after "Fine good, send some men over and get back to work soldier." He hung up the radio
"What's going on?" Asked Cyborg
"We have reports that the prison on the eastside got hit hard." Recon explained "The prison guards didn't stand a chance. I have men scrambling over there right now to quarantine the building. We estimate there is a large amount of hostilies inside the prison. But with our blockade up, no one is getting out."
"What's our plan?" Robin asked
"We're staying on course to the helicopter crash site," Recon told him "after we recover Beastboy and the others we'll head over to the prison."
"This is getting frustrating." Robin said drooping his head
"Welcome to my world." Recon replied
Admid all this Raven was silently smiling beneath her cloak. She felt like she had just heard something funny.
'Beastboy,' She thought 'you just have to make light of these situations, don't you?'
Reige blasted another Mutant behind a projector and moved his way thorugh the aisles of the theatre quietly.
"Where the hell did that green kid go?" He asked peering up over the bullets flying over head.
Suddenly a green mammoth burt thorugh the wall of neighbouring theatre and brough a a large two armed mutants with it in its trunk. The mammoth flung the mutant over a series of chairs and straight into another wall. Affectively knocking him out. The Mammoth then charged through the theatre seats and forced the other mutants out of cover. Reige also had to duck out fo the way. The mammoth then changed into a green lion and pounced on Mutant after Mutant in quick succession. Effectively knocking them to the ground. One mutant snuck up behind the green lion and aimed for him.
"Say goodbye." The mutant snickered through his gas mask.
The mutant fired and the bullet met the hard shell of an Ankylosaurs which then used its tail to knock the mutant clean across the room. Reige finally exited out of hiding from the carnage when the fighting had stopped. The green ankylosaurus had changed back into Beastboy.
"You know some ample warning about the stampede would have been nice." Reige told him
"Sorry," Beastboy said "got caught up in the moment."
"I almost got caught up in your giant prehistoric elephant foot!" The Raptor yelled
"I said I was sorry." Beastboy then looked to the knocked out Mutants. "What do we do with them?"
"Well if you killed them we could just leave them there." Reige told him
"I don't kill...ever." Beastboy said sternly
"Fine, I'll lock them all in a broom closet." Reige told him "How's that?"
"Fine with me."
With the theatre finally cleared and the knocked out mutants locked away until they could be brought in, Ryan, Reige and Beastboy all meet in the Theatre lobby.
"That was the most fun at the movies I've had in ages." Ryan exclaimed
"We almost got killed several times today!" Beastboy yelled "That big guy had two machine gun in his hand! TWO! And they were aiming at me!"
"Relax green man." Ryan told him "We're almost home, all we have to do is find a way to signal our friends at Raptorian command and were scott free!"
Suddenly and explosion rocked the front of the movie theatre as the windows on the doors were blown in. The two Raptors and Beastboy looked over at the now flaming front door. As a voice boomed over them.
"THIS 'THE RED PATH' DIVISION 3574, WE KNOW YOU ARE IN THERE! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP AND WEAPONS DOWN AND WE WILL NOT HARM YOU!"
Reige was the first to say something
"I hate it when things like this happen." He said
Ryan was undettered
"Don't worry, I know exactly what to do..." Ryan paused in a dramatic pose for a few seconds "but first an orange soda!"
Ryan ran over to the concession stand and began to drink straight fromt eh tap of the machine. Then he heard something clamber out of one of the drawer beside him. He turned expecting a mutant and found something else.
"Hey! Guys!" He shouted "We got another human here."
Beastboy and Reige ran over to the concession stand and found who Ryan was talking about. A fat teenager with wild red hair, a trenchcoat and a unibrow holding a remote in his hand.
Beastboy knew exactly who it was
"Control Freak."
First appearance of Titan villian from the series in my story. Control Freak is one of my favourittes because he such a freaking nerd. Any way head on over to the next chapter, come on people you're wasting time reading this author's note.