Okay first disclaimer: I only own the mutants and raptors, everyone else isn't mine
This is the chapter where Raven and Beastboy finally get all the facts behind Ryan's crazy mind, oh and our dear friends Recon and Cyborg try and stop that virus. Enjoy.
Chapter 15: Count backwards from 10
"Remind me again why you're helping this guy?" Rack asked Robin as he peered over at Red X
Robin was somewhat busy at the moment trying to reach the Tower.
"I made him a deal." Robin explained frustrated "He wants me to help him get back the Xinothium core belt he had. If I grab it first I get to keep it. Then I take him to jail."
"Well considering bug-dino just took off with a warhead capable of leveling the city that job just got harder didn't it?' Rack argued "Besides this guy is a wanted crinimal! How can we trust him?"
"Um guys, I'm right here and I can hear you talking about me." Red X said looking over his shoulder "To tell you the truth I don't really care if you don't trust me to hold up my end of the deal. I just expect you to hold up yours. Are we clear on that?"
Robin stopped trying to reach the tower and turned to Red X
"Listen, our deal is still on on." He assured "But if niether of us finds Karvisko soon you can kiss your crinimal career goodbye. So start helping."
"Well have you considered how exactly Karvisko is going to escape the city since its blocked off from the outside world by the National Guard and the US military?" Red X asked "For someone who made it to the rank of General he isn't very smart when it comes to an exit strategy."
Starfire floated over from the Submarine after helping Reige and Roger tie up the surrendered Mutants.
"He could not use the helicopter he has stolen." Starfire commented "It would never leave the city limits before it runs out of fuel. I may not know much about this world but I know they will need something bigger inorder to escape."
"The airport then." Robin thought
Snipe shook his head
"That was the first place we qurantined when we came in." He told them
"Can't be that blimp they had," Rack added "since its basically a pile of twisted metal now."
Robin rubbed his chin trying to think. Everything was cut off for the Mutants, how exactly were they going to get out of this city.
"Is there any place that isn't blocked off for the Mutants?" Robin asked
"Well now that you mention it," Rack began to think "the bay is pretty much unguarded. We kinda figured they had already dropped in with their planes and junk so there wasn't going to be an amphibious assualt. But we have the carrier out at sea watching everymove on the waves. They can't possibly get through from there."
"Yes," Snipe added "but who know what things they dropped into the city. They smuggled a whole blimp in here didn't they?"
"We should find out where that chopper was headed." Robin said in a serious tone "I'll try the tower again."
Cyborg's red eye began to flicker on. At first he only saw some tinge of static. Then the words, "System Reboot Complete" appeared before his face. His optical eye opened and he found himself in his room. He soon focused in on the shape of someone sitting nearby. It was Recon.
"Welcome back to the land of the living." He said
The robotic hero rubbed his forehead
"What happened?" He asked "The last thing I remeber was watching myself go ballistic all over the tower and then it all went black."
"It wasn't just you," Recon told him "it was the whole city, including the tower. Something got in the system."
"A virus?" Cyborg said in amazement "But I have the best virus protection program for my systems, including me. How did it get in?"
"I did a diagnostic," Recon asnwered "the virus was designed to basically kill any program it ran into. However when you got it the virus became confused. Because aren't completely made out of wires and metal it didn't know how to infect you. That's when it basically just made you malfunction when it couldn't delete all of your programing."
"Okay, but what about my tower?" Cyborg asked once more
"The virus works like EMP pulse, it doesn't care how much virus protection you have. It just turns it off and deletes it leaving everything vulnerable. It works in a timeframe of miliseconds and if we don't stop it soon its going to keep going until it infects all of North America."
"Dang, how bad is it now?" Cyborg asked with a concerned look
"I called HQ, the emergency broadcast signal has been implemented and is now running what news it can. So far as I know its penetrated all the way to Salt Lake City."
"How do we stop it?" Cyborg asked
"I think we can implement an Anti-Virus program but I need you to help me."
"Got it." Cy said nodding before looking around and realizing that if he really was knocked out that bad his friends would be here. "So where are the guys?"
"Doing what they can out in Jump City. I'm getting reports from all over town about random attacks from Mutant soldiers."
Suddenly Cyborg's arm communicator went off. Cyborg flipped it on and saw Robin's face.
"Cy your up." Robin said happily
"Yep, back in the game."
Starfire pried the communicator out of Robin hands and began souting into it.
"Friend it is good to see that you are alive! When the virys struck you we all feared the worst! Thank X'Hal that you are online again! When we are victorious I shall create you a wonderous feast to celebrate your good health."
Cyborg suddenly felt very sick.
"No thanks Star I'm good."
"Are you sure?" Starfire questioned "It will be most delicious and..."
Robin took the communicator back from Starfire
"Listen," Robin began "Cockroach was at the military base a few minutes outside of town. He grabbed a Nuclear warhead and took off in a chopper."
"So that's what their going to use to trip the Xinothium core when they get it." Cyborg said astonished. Robin took on an even more serious look
"Actually they already have that as well. They took it off of Red X."
Cyborg raised an eyebrow
"You know this...how?" He asked
Robin's look turned to embarassment
"Red X kinda sorta asked for my help in getting it back."
"He's wioth you now isn't he?" Cyborg asked
"Well I'm not happy about it okay." Robin rubbed his forehead "Can you just follow these coordinates of the chopper's flightpath and tell me where Cockroach is headed?"
"No problem," Cyborg Acknowledged "I'll send them over as soon as possible."
Beastboy had been tracking the sounds of Ryan's chainsaw as well as the smell of Orange Juice throughout the city as a Coyote. Raven followed close behind in the air as he continued to sniff along the ground. The the direction they were heading in was filled with dead Mutant bodies and bullet holes in everything they came across. The stop sign at one intersection had its letters blasted out of it and the glass of a few Traffic and street lights were strewn across the ground.
"He certainly isn't a hard Dinosaur to find is he?" Raven thought aloud to herself
The green coyote in front of her apparently heard her because he was silently surpessing a yip. Not very well however. The coyote quickly turned back to Beastboy and let out a little laugh
"Yeah just follow the trail of mindless destruction and Orange Juice containers." He blurted out"Good one Rae."
"Thanks," Raven said in a monotone voice "do you think we can speed this up a little?"
"Don't worry the scent is getting stronger." Beastboy told her as he looked ahead "Its pointing me...there!" Beastboy pointed off down the street and saw a familar sight. Muramaki High School, the last place he saw...her.
"Oh man, I thought I'd never show up here again." He said looking down at the ground
Raven noticed that he wasn't in the chipper mood he was previously in just seconds ago. Then it hit her.
"This is the place where you saw Terra. Isn't it?" She asked
"Yeah. I never expected that I'd show up again after all those weeks." Beastboy peered over at it "Looks kinda abandoned at the moment."
"They probably evacuated when the Mutants showed up." Raven looked over at Beastboy and saw his somewhat dissapointed face "Are you okay?"
Beastboy shook his head out of his stupor
"Oh, yeah. I'm fine."
"Your not dissapointed that you won't see her are you?" She asked
"No," Beastboy explained "its just the thought of going back in there is kinda emotional for me. Considering it is the place where my "EX" hangs out."
Raven seemed to be relived at this statement. She didn't really know why. Perhaps it was just relief that Beastboy really was over Terra. But why should she care. She knocked these thoughts out of her mind.
"Well maybe he isn't in there." Raven told Beastboy
The sound of a reving chainsaw shot up from the school grounds.
"And you think I jinx these sorta things." Beastboy smiled smugly at her
"Just go." Raven said pushing him towards the school.
When they got inside the school they noticed how desolate and dirty it was. Several ammunition boxes were strewn throughout the halls. As were several more dead Mutant soldiers.
"Man, what a dump." Beastboy said as he looked around
"Ryan was definetly here." Raven observed
"Ya think?" Beastboy asked "Were the dead bodies lying around your first clue?"
Beastboy went over and tapped at a locker a few times. He heard something slip inside. Surprised he tapped at it again. This time the locker door slowly began to open and within seconds it flew open. Something had fallen out and landed with a thud. Beastboy jumped back in horror as Raven backed away quickly from the fallen form. They looked down upon as it came to a rest on the ground. It was a Mutant soldier, stone dead. He had been stuffed into the locker after he had received a bullet wound to the chest. Caused by a shotgun no doubt.
"If this is Ryan's sense of humour I'm so not laughing." Beastboy said backing away from the body in disgust.
"Come on," Raven said tugging at his arm "lets keep moving."
They walked through the halls of the school silently keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of Ryan. His Chainsaw had stopped reving for the moment so they had no idea where he was. They saw more bodies lying everywhere in the hall ways. The scene was extremely morbid. Even for Raven who felt somewhat quesy from it all. Then they came upon something strange. There was a blood smeer across the floor leading into a nearby room. The door had the words "Detention" printed across the glass. They opened it up to find five Mutants sitting in desks. Another one was at the front of the classroom at the teacher's desk. His head lying flat on upon it clutching a large piece of chalk in his hand. The board behind him read "I am an Asshole." over and over again. Raven checked the five Mutants in the student's desks. The all had bullet wounds to their heads. These ones were dead. The one at the teacher's desk however only had his gas mask ripped off and his forehead had an obvious bruise on it. His feet were tied to the chair and he had a pair of handcuffs attaching him to the chair's arm by one hand. The other hand taped up so he couldn't let go of the chalk. The Mutant still appeared to be breathing.
"This one's alive." Raven called over to Beastboy. Needless to say he was amazed
"He kills like who knows how many soldiers in this place and he leaves this one alive?" Beastboy said as Raven walked back over to him. "I don't get it."
"Ryan isn't exactly your average psycho remember." Raven reminded him
"Still surprised he actually left someone alive." said Beastboy looking at Raven "He told me he loved killing guilty people remember."
"Which means he probably left this place just minutes after we arrived." Raven told him "There's nobody left here."
A sudden sound of a gunshot came from above their heads. They recognized it as Ryan's shotgun
"The roof." The two of them said in unison.
Raven opened up a window in the room. Beastboy flew out as a small bird while Raven followed him through the air. They both landed on top of the roof. It was covered in air vents and the like. They looked to see if Ryan was nearby.
"Yo! "Beastboy called "Commando dude! Its us!"
There was no answer
"Ryan," Raven called "are you here?"
No answer
"Come on dude this isn't funny." Beastboy shouted
"Shut up I'm trying to think!" Shouted back a familiar face.
Raven and Beastboy followed to where the sound had originated and found Ryan sitting on the edge of the roof looking down at the ground. His weapons were all back in his holster except for EARL the chainsaw in his right hand.
"Bird-Brain send you?" He asked not looking at them
"You abandoned your escort and refused to call in." Raven explained "Recon and Robin wanted us to find you."
"Well as you can see I'm here." Ryan said still looking away and holding up his hands "Now can you go."
"I was thinking we could talk." Raven told him
Ryan finally turned to them
"About what precisely?"
"Well for example what exactly happened here?" Raven asked
Ryan didn't answer for a few seconds. Instead he jumped down from his perched position on the roof and sat down on the ground, leaning against the edge.
"This was a ammunitions dump for the Mutants awhile ago." He told them "You no doubt found some of the occupants?"
"Including that little Detention club and a guy you stuffed in a locker." Beastboy answered
Ryan smiled
"Oh yes them." Ryan chuckled "After I killed most of them I decided to have a little fun. I stuffed that guy in a locker when I got bored. The detention class was made up of some random fellas I found on the ground."
"And the one you left alive?" Raven asked, know he knew the answer
"He was cowering in the bath stalls. Didn't even have a loaded weapon. Must of been too afraid to remember." Ryan said "After I set him up in the detention room with that taped Chalk stuck in his hand I made him write 'I'm and Asshole' several times on the board at gun point. Then I knocked him out with the butt of the gun and tied him up. He'll wake up in the morning when the army does its sweep of the area and be picked up."
"And he isn't dead why?" Raven asked
"There was no need to kill him." Ryan explained "He already suffered enough. Now excuse me." Ryan seemed to be getting up to leave
"Wait." Raven told him
"What?" He whinned "I answered your stupid question."
"I have another question." Raven told him
Ryan seemed to know what it was
"Forget it."
"Ryan," Beastboy butted in "were trying to help."
"Help?" Ryan said surprised suddenly standing up he began to yell at them "Help me how? By asking me what my life was like before all this junk? By making me relive all those disgusting memories? By making me feel guilty about it all? Well don't you think I already do? You don't think I sometimes feel like a horrible person? Well I may do bad things, but in the end I get a result! If it weren't for me thousands if not millions of innocent people would be suffering now!"
"We're not here to judge you Ryan." Raven explained
"Then why are you here?" He asked seeming to calm down "Why do you care about what I"ve done? In a few hours this entire thing will be over and I'll be out of here with the rest of my Raptorian friends. So whats it to you?"
"Cause you're not the only one who goes through this." Beastboy told him stepping "We have a lot more in common then you think."
"Like what?" Ryan asked
"I'm an orphan." Beastboy said aloud "Just like you. My parents died when I was just a child, right in front of my eyes. They died and I couldn't save them, there was nothing I could have done to save them. The same thing that happened to you when you were a kid."
Raven seemed somewhat astonished at how Beastboy had just admited his history to Ryan so plainly. He left out the major details but it was still something. He knew he needed to establish a connection with Ryan and Raven could see it in the way Ryan was no longer tensing up as he was before that Beastboy had succeeded. She couldn't help but feel proud of him. As for Ryan he just let out a sigh.
"The fact is you probably didn't have some sick son of a bitch laughing at you as you looked over your dead parents who he had just killed." Ryan said "Staring at you with those black souless eyes and that disgusting satisfied smile of his. That laugh has always haunted me, the months after, when I was in that SICO prison camp for Raptors being tortured for days on end, even after I finally hunted that bastard down and killed him for what he had done to my parents. In the end it didn't bring my parents back. And after the war ended Raptoria didn't seem like home to me anymore. So I left. I got myself a raft and rowed myself all the way to the the United States."
"What about Los Angeles?" Raven asked "How'd you get there?"
"I walked. Simple as that." Ryan told them
"All the way to LA?" Beastboy said astonished
"Well I found enough spare change on the ground to get me there on a bus after awhile. I had to dress up in a trenchcoat so I wouldn't draw suspicision. Raptors can do that with their giant snouts you know."
"So what happened in LA?" Raven asked
Ryan seemed to step back a bit
":I don't want to go there." He told them. Of course just as quickly as he said that he lifted EARL up to his face "What?...Oh come on man!" Ryan shouted at EARL "Why?...Please don't make me tell...but...oh fine you stupid hallucination, fine!" Ryan put down the chainsaw
"So what did EARL say?" Beastboy asked trying to sound as serious as possible with the fact that he had just said the Chainsaw's name.
"Fine I'll tell you." Ryan said ignoring Beastboy's question about EARL: "It isn't prety though."
"I've seen more then enough morbid things then I can stomach tonight." Raven told him "I don't mind one more at this point."
Ryan sighed once more
"When I arrived in LA I decided to set up in an abandoned fun house. Wasn't too funny though. Kinda sad. I had a little bussiness office up behind all the stupid clowns and crap. Had a mini fridge with OJ in it too. My first ever drink of the stuff. Kinda yucky though. Anyway I was in there in the day and out at night. Met some colourful characters, pissed off a few people, really bad people. Before I knew it, I had the Mafia and LA gangs all gunning for me. They burned down the fun house I was in and by then I just couldn't take it anymore. I snapped. If humans were going to make my life a living hell then I'd make them join me in it. I spent the rest of the following night killing every last crinimal I could find. When it was all over I had practically eliminated LA's entire crinimal population."
"Without a single innocent dead?" Beastboy said astonished
"Couldn't have done it without that LAPD rap list I stole from their archives." Ryan said with pride
"Were you put in custody?" Raven asked
"I was captured shortly afterwards, broke out just as quickly and found my way back to Raptoria."
"So all those dead people we saw in your head..." Raven stared
"All crinimals," Ryan finished "the only reason I'm not being prosecuted for it all is because I'm not a full fledged American citizen. Also because when they held the trial, with me in absentee, the jury kinda ruled not guilty for reasons of insanity. No freaking duh."
So Beastboy and Raven had done it, they succeeded in getting Ryan to spill his history to them, now Raven could finally get to the heart of the problem.
"That was the night when you decided on this crusade of your isn't it?" She asked
"You could call it that I guess." Ryan said shrugging "The never-ending battle to wipe the world clean of scum and villiany. I figured it would be what my parents would want. That's why I became a soldier. To honour their memory by making sure what happened to me doesn't happen to another child ever again. I will go to whatever lengths to destroy the corrupt and the greedy and the tyrannical. And since war brings that out in the worst kinds of people I think I picked a good choice of career to do just that don't you think?"
"So we were right." Raven said "You do love war."
"Of course I love it!" Ryan shouted "I've lived with it for who knows how long! I've used all the skills, all the lessons, all the expieriences of my life to ready me for war. I am the ultimate soldier, I live for the sting of battle and smell of victory. War is how I survive, I use it to keep going. And with war I shall destroy the worst of human nature. What better way is there to live out one's existance then that?"
"Thats exactly the problem." Raven told him
"What do you mean?" Ryan asked somewhat confused
Beastboy stepped in once again
"You love war Ryan." Beastboy told him "What normal rational person loves war? Your reason is because it brings out the worst in people and guess what it does the same to you."
"Oh come on." Ryan said
"You played with dead bodies and made a guy write that he's an asshole at gun point." Beastboy told him
Ryan seemed to understand Beastboy's sentiment
"I won't deny that I did things that are not considered kosher." He said "But my methods are how I operate. Its who I am. You can't expect me to change just because you don't like them."
"But you will change Ryan." Raven told him "For the worse. The more you act like this the worse your mind deterioates. Your lucky that you gained back some common sense before you killed the defenceless Mutant. Next time you probably won't."
"Trust me," Beastboy added "you don't want anymore of that happening."
"It will kill you Ryan," Raven told him in a serious tone "not physhically but mentally. The next time you snap it will be for good."
Ryan didn't want to believe them, but they had been inside his mind. They had seen things more clearly then he ever could. Even he didn't want to tread in those dark corners of his brain. Besides they had nothing to gain from lying. He only had one choice...He had to believe them.
"So what should I do?" Ryan asked
"Stop. Just for now." Raven suggested "Take a break, a long break. Recon said you were pushing yourself with mission after mission. Take a rest Ryan. You've more then earned it."
"Everyday I take a rest another child could suffer like I did!" Ryan shouted in disbelief "Your asking for me to let that happen?"
"You can't save the world by yourself Ryan." Raven explained trying to make him understand "And war can't last forever"
"Don't give me that hippie garbage." Ryan shouted back "You can't stop something that horrible. As long as there is greed, corruption, hate and evil in this world there will be war. Besides what makes you think I can't save the world all by myself?"
"I know you can't." Raven elaborated
"How do you know?" Ryan pressured
"Because I used to think I could."
"Huh?" Ryan said in disbelief at Raven words
Raven seemed to grow more mellow as she closed her eyes and explained
"I used to think I didn't need help, that I didn't need friends, that I didn't need to belong. I thought I only needed to rely on myself, that I could defy certain things by myself. I didn't need anyone." Raven then opened her eyes looked over at Beastboy who was hanging on every word "Then someone helped me realise that I don't need to keep things like my past bottled up inside and that there were people I could rely on to help me. I always thought I was alone in my battles, but I wasn't." Beastboy seemed to blush at this "And I didn't need to be."
Beastboy made a small smile at Raven words trying desperately to hide the blush that made his skin turn from its usual green to red. Ryan, in the meantime, seemed to take Raven's words at heart, but he wasn't fully convinced yet
"You have people in your life Goth girl," Ryan told Raven "I don't. The only two peple I ever cared about are dead, so who is there left to turn to? I have to rely on myself and myself alone. Otherwise who will."
Beastboy soon saw that it was his turn. He walked over to Ryan who now had his back turned. Beastboy turned him around by the shoulder, he wasn't at the same height as Ryan but he had to act like he was on the same level with him.
"You told me others join the army for a sense of honor and duty." Beatboy reminded him "If thats true then you don't need to worry. There are plenty of people willing to do the same things you do without going bonkers. If none of them wanted this job then why are they still here?" Ryan didn't answer
"Cause they care about the same things you do." Said Beastboy "They want to make the world a better place, everyone like us does. You just need to lay off for just one time, have fun or as some people would say..." Beastboy looked back at Raven "...break the routine a little."
Raven smiled softly at him. A second after it appeared Beastboy sensed a telepathic message coming from Raven to him
"When did you get so mature?" She asked
"Heh, don't worry," He thought back to her "I'm still me. I'll prove it, why did the turkey cross the road?"
"Same old Beastboy. Thank Azar for that." Raven replied as she shook her head smiling
"And don't expect me to go away soon."
Ryan seemed to understand it all at last. He walked past Beastboy and Raven and made his way to the roof exit.
"I guess I do need a vacation after all this. Perhaps just a rest at the beach." Ryan said "I do kinda deserve it."
Beastboy and Raven had apparently broken through to Ryan.
"Good," Raven said "but first we have a city to save."
"Damn straight Goth Girl." Ryan said he pulled out his machine gun
At the Tower Cyborg had finally gotten Titans Tower back online. The alarm system and lights now worked and the computer was back at full functioning capacity. Recon expected it to take longer to hunt down and destroy the Virus but instead it wasn't so hard.
"There," Cyborg said elated "I've managed to shut down the spread of the virus. It's main hub here in Jump City has now been isolated. With that severed the virus should simply die out anywhere outside the hub in at least 12 hours."
"And the virus itself?" Recon asked
"Just a simple little hack into the city's mainframe and I can delete it from there. Could take awhile." Five seconds later after typing several keys Cyborg was overjoyed "Booyah! Whose your cybernetic daddy!"
"Virus dead?" Recon asked
"Virus not just dead, it just turned on itself." Cyborg smiled "Fixed the programing so it attacks its own programing. It commited cyberspace suicide. Now tell me who rocks?"
"How long till the system is back online?" Recon asked
"Should be back by dawn. In the meantime lets hope Robin found where the Helicopter was headed. I could only give him a small estimate where it could have landed.
Robin studied the remains of the trashed minature chopper before him. Cockroach had blown it up to get the Titans off his trail. The chopper had been blown just a few miles shy of a crashed mutant paratrooper plane. It must of been one of the planes that was destined to crash because of its low fuel. Robin looked inside with the otrhers trying to find out why Cockroach had gone here.
"I don't get it." Rack said as he peered into the plane's broken chassis "What could he have possible gotten from here.
The inside of the plane was big, very big. It looked like it wasn't meant for paratroops. It looked like it could something much larger. Like a vehicle of some kind. There were hard leather and steel straps that had been broken by something. Possibly by Cockroach, he didn't know what he wanted to grab here but it looked like he got it. The leather and steel straps were cut only recently.
"How are we to find the Cockroach now?" Starfire asked
"We don't," Robin told him "we find Karvisko and we find Cockroach. Along with the Xinothium and the Warhead."
"So we find them how?" Reige asked "I mean its not like we can just track a Xinothium power core and a warhead down, especially in a war torn city."
Robin suddenly remembered something, how could he have forgotten something like that. He turned to Red X
"X, do you still have that Xinothium scanner you stole?"
X seemed annoyed
"Are you going to gripe me about stealing that now?"
"No," Robin told him "We can use it to track where Karvisko and Cockroach are. They must have gotten the two pieces of the bomb together by now."
Red X slapped his forehead for not realising that sooner and pulled the scanner out of his pocket. He pointed it at the city behind them and soon got a beeping sound.
"Looks like its pointing towards the center of the city." Red X told them "Most likely where that blimp crashed near the pizza place."
Robin picked up his communicator
"Titans, we know where the bomb is follow us to these coordinates. We're ending this."
Inside the Pizza Parlour, the mutant technicians placed te final piece into their suitcase. It was done the bomb was armed and ready. Now all that mattered was getting out of here and Cockroach would make sure of that. Karvisko looked over his handy work. Everything had fallen into place. The mood was ruined however when Aleksander came running in the door.
"General," He shouted "Cockroach says hes spotted several Raptorian soldiers headed this way!"
Karvisko looked somewhat unhindered by this
"Let them come." He said "We have what we wanted. Whats a few more dead Raptors on our rapsheet. The revolution begins today."
Climatic battle coming up guys, stayed tuned it will show up soon. Please review