Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I still don't own the Teen Titans. But I will… I WILL. (Long awkward pause)… Sigh… No, not really.
Gunsmoke And Black Roses—Chapter Nineteen
"Guys! Guys, over here!" Smoke called to his friends. "Quickly!"
The others rushed over; they'd already wasted an hour and didn't want to waste any more time… there was no telling what Blackfire was being put through.
"It's here…" The gunman said energetically. "It's here, somewhere at this spot… I remember."
"But… it's just a wall." Raven said slowly.
It was true. Smoke was knelt down at a small corner where two walls met, with absolutely nothing looking out-of-place.
"There's a switch… somewhere nearby." Smoke searched his memory… "It's hidden in the wall somewhere nearby here… we need to find it!"
"Right. Everybody start looking on the walls for anything suspicious." Robin said with a nod.
Thus, everybody began to search as quickly and carefully as they could… but thirty minutes later… still, nothing had been found.
"I don't see anything. Nothing at all…" Cyborg lamented. He shone the light on his shoulder everywhere he could, but saw nothing but the same charred, barren, old wall.
The walls in question were very tall; there were perhaps a hundred feet between the ground and the ceiling… the basement was huge.
"Wait a minute…" Smoke muttered. He remembered something…
He had been in that capsule… about to be transferred to the secret hangar for testing. He remembered a single gunshot sound… and a clang, as if someone had shot the wall… then, there was an entrance suddenly to a rail.
"Cy…"
"Yo."
"Shine that light upwards on the wall, way up there near the ceiling…"
"Uhh… Sure, if you say so."
Cy switched the spotlight to maximum brightness and pointed up near the ceiling.
Whipping out his rifle, Smoke looked slowly and carefully through the scope. Inch by inch, he scanned the ceiling… and there it was.
Barely even visible way up there, it was a small crosshair target. It was on the ceiling, just above the spot where the two walls met to form a corner… that was it; that was the key.
Levering a slug into the rifle chamber, Smoke aimed carefully.
"Guys… cover your ears. This is gonna be loud…" He warned.
They all did as he said, especially Beast Boy who had sensitive hearing and was wary of Smoke's gunshot.
Making sure the center of his scope was aligned with the middle of the target, he squeezed the trigger.
Just as he'd anticipated, a massive gunshot echoed loudly around the dilapidated basement floors as the exploding slug Smoke had fired flew upwards at the ceiling… and a moment later, an explosion like a grenade lit up the huge chamber and spread steam and fumes all over the place.
Smoke reloaded, but kept his eyes on the target. It was still there, undamaged… but after a moment, it glowed briefly and faded back down.
"… It worked."
Sure enough, the walls began… moving. The two walls that formed the corner began swinging away, revealing a huge, rusty platform with a small booth that hung over a huge chasm. There, next to the booth was a rail, propped up by cement columns that stretched down into the black crevice below.
"This is it! Guys, come on!" Smoke said, taking off towards the small booth.
"We found it!" Cheered Beast Boy.
"And now we must find my Sister." Starfire added solemnly.
Smoke was in the small booth now, standing over a small control panel. "Please… please work…" He prayed softly.
He saw a blinking button on the display labeled, "Call Monorail To Station". He jabbed it impatiently with his index finger, hoping to God it still worked…
The screen filled with static for a moment, causing him to curse under his breath… then, it came back with the message, "Monorail en route… Have a nice day."
"YES!"
"It worked?" Robin asked hopefully.
"Yeah… yeah, it says the monorail's on it's way."
Robin opened his mouth to say something else, but was cut off by a metallic hiss in the distance.
Everyone turned in surprise, looking to the far side of the huge station (most of which consisted of just a massive chasm with a rail over it)… there, at the other end was the dim outline of a tunnel. And in the tunnel were… lights.
Round, white lights shone brightly out in the blackness, growing larger and brighter as they came closer along the track. So, also, did the metallic hisses and gratings grow until they were painfully loud.
Soon enough, a monorail came into view, racing along the track at high speed. It's white paint peeled slightly, and the green stripe down the side was faded, but… other than this, it seemed to be in perfect condition.
Soon, it pulled up and docked near the metal platform with the booth that they were standing on, and the doors opened automatically.
"Let's go…" Robin said simply. Smoke nodded and got on, the others following him.
Once inside, they sat down on the padded seats and the thing started up automatically. It raced back around in a U-Turn motion and went back the way it had come.
The instant they entered the tunnel again; into that inky blackness… they began to get nervous. The only thing they could see was each other's eyes and the large sphere illuminated by the headlights of the monorail.
"I… I think there's supposed to be lights in this tunnel… but the bomb blast must've knocked out the power. This monorail runs on a generator in the hangar, that's why it still works when everything doesn't." Smoke explained.
"I do not like this darkness." Starfire said, balling her knees up to her chest and looking around uncomfortably. Robin, sitting nearby, put an arm around her shoulders. She leaned over and put her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes and sighing contentedly.
"It's not that bad." Raven said with a shrug.
"Well, yeah, but… you're used to hanging around in dark places." Beast Boy said with a laugh. "We're not."
"Still, at least we've got headlights." Raven said bracingly.
"Guys… I hate to say this, but… I'm not joking…" Smoke started. "You might want to catch a nap or something…"
"How can we sleep at a time like this?" Robin demanded.
"All I mean is, it's about an hour's trip to the base and it's getting late…" Smoke said. He sighed heavily. "I want to save Blackfire, but… wishing won't make this thing go any faster."
"We'll get there in time." Cy assured. "I mean… Blackfire's tough. She's not gonna let that guy do anything to her without putting up a fight."
"Cyborg's right." Terra added softly. "Besides… he said himself that he was after you, not her…"
"Yeah… you're right." Smoke nodded. He shuddered suddenly. Terra, whom he was sitting next to noticed the movement and looked over in concern.
"Huh? Is anything wrong?"
He sighed. "I… I think I'm going to go to sleep. You guys wake me up when we get to the hangar." He said slowly.
He reached down and found a lever on the side of the seat, and pulled. It reclined back and he lay back with his hands on his chest.
Smoke really couldn't explain it, but… sleep was one of the times he felt the most calm, the most control. Sleep was like his sanctuary, where nothing could hurt him and he could feel no pain. Back in the base, when the pain, the cruelty, the loneliness… when it all became too much and he felt as though he was about to explode… he'd just go to sleep in that capsule.
Now, with his mind wracked with worry and fear over the one person he'd ever had feelings for… he couldn't take it. So, with a quick prayer that she was all right, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.
"Smoke… Smoke!"
The gunman felt himself being shook lightly by the shoulder. With a stretch and a quick yawn, his eyes fluttered open and he glanced around in a drowsy daze… until he remembered where he was and what he was doing.
Springing up from his seat, he immediately asked the first thing on his mind.
"Are we there?" He asked urgently.
"No! But… we've got a problem!" Robin said with a panicked look.
"Huh… what?"
Robin grabbed Smoke by the arm abruptly and dragged him to the front car. He stopped and pointed shakily out the windshield.
Straining his eyes, which could see better than the others' in darkness, he managed to make out the rest of the track beyond the limited glow of the headlights… and immediately saw the problem.
On the tracks ahead, there was a massive pile of debris. The earthen roof above the track had a huge chunk missing, and the stone and dirt debris was now covering the track.
"Quick, Smoke! Where are the brakes?" Robin demanded, searching the compartment desperately.
"There are no brakes! It's fully automated!" Smoke answered with a small groan.
"What the Hell kind of monorail doesn't have any emergency brakes?" Robin yelped, smacking his forehead.
"The kind built by the government." Smoke answered grimly with a heavy sigh. "Do the others know? We don't have much time."
"I haven't told them…"
"Well, don't just stand there, go tell them! We may have to jump…"
"JUMP? Are you crazy?"
At that moment, they were suddenly interrupted by a muffled yawn.
"Hey guys… what's goin' on?"
It was Beast Boy, who'd just walked into the front car. He scratched his arm and yawned again.
With a sigh, Smoke pointed ahead in the darkness. Beast Boy, changing into an owl to see well in the dark, peered out the windshield. After a moment, the owl began hooting panicked and flapping around. It fell to the floor and changed back to Beast Boy.
"The tracks are blocked! We're gonna crash!" He moaned, freaking out.
"There's got to be something…" Smoke strained his mind, trying to think of a way out of this.
Suddenly, Beast Boy became a bit calmer, and a look of realization spread across his face, as though an idea had just dawned on him. "Guys… wait here." He said, right before rushing out and slamming the door shut behind him.
Robin and Smoke stared in confused silence, pretty stressed at the moment and not getting why Beast Boy had rushed out.
A minute later, the door slid quickly back open and Beast Boy stepped in… with Terra right behind him.
It was at that moment, that Robin began to get Beast Boy's drift… Smoke, however, was still just confused.
"What do you think? Can you do it?" Beast Boy asked urgently.
The rocky wreckage on the track was close enough now to be seen in the headlights… not good. Terra looked at it and gulped. "I… I'll try."
Taking a deep breath, she stared hard at the debris that was rapidly approaching. Gritting her teeth and straining with effort, her eyes suddenly flashed yellow, causing Smoke to inhale sharply in surprise.
"Wh...what's she doing?" he asked, puzzled.
"What she does best." Robin said simply.
The rocks on the track were glowing now too, illuminating the entire subterranean tunnel in a golden glimmer. Smoke recognized it as the same gold light that he and Zero had seen when they'd freed Terra.
And then, before he knew it, the rocks were about forty feet in the air, and… wait… the rocks… were floating? Sure enough, they were; levitating, to be more precise, and the entire time shining with that yellow-gold light.
And not a moment too soon, because just as they'd reached the height of their elevation, the monorail zoomed past the exact spot they'd been sitting on and would've crashed were it not for Terra's intervention.
With the stone rubble behind them, Terra gasped and dropped her concentration, allowing the boulders and dirt to tumble back down with an echoing crash, bouncing off the rail and plummeting into the dark below them.
"Yes! Good going, Terra!" Beast Boy cheered, hugging her around the waist. She smiled sheepishly while Robin congratulated her also.
"I… didn't know you could do that…" Smoke said slowly, feeling a little embarrassed about the lack of knowledge he had about his own friend and teammate.
"Terra's a geomancer." Robin explained, while she just blushed and remained silent.
Smoke stared blankly, with his trademark, 'whut-da-Hell-izzat?' look.
"Uh… She can manipulate the Earth… rocks, dirt, mud, and stuff…" Beast Boy elaborated further.
"Oh, right." Smoke said, snapping his fingers. "I knew that." He lied quickly.
At that moment, Starfire opened the door and floated in. She looked at everybody strangely.
"Is there some sort of problem?" She asked worriedly. "I heard Beast Boy yelling just now…"
"Yeah… what WAS going on?" Cy added, sticking his head into the doorway along with Raven.
"Just a little last-minute roadwork that needed to be done." Robin said with a smile.
"Thankfully, we've got a 117 lb. Human rock-mover here." Smoke said, motioning to Terra.
"Really, it was nothing…" She said softly.
About Forty-Seven Minutes Later…
Everybody aboard the monorail was suddenly blinded by the flash of lights as they pulled into another station… much like the one they'd come from, except with a large steel wall with black-and-yellow caution stripes painted on the edges and a small door reading. "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY".
They exited the parked monorail and approached said door, which slid open automatically as they drew near. They stepped slowly inside, and suddenly felt as though they were on a different planet.
The entire place around them was in movement; nothing stood still. Looking about, they saw turning gears, flashing computer-monitor screens, blinking buttons, pumping pistons, glowing bulbs, and spinning cranks.
The walls were all of shining, polished metal, and the floors were tiled in a black-and-white checkers pattern, like on a chessboard. The ceiling was jet black, but with long lights in rows that kept the entire place lit up brightly.
The sounds echoing around them of operating machinery and humming electronics made things even more overwhelming simply because you were never quite sure if the sounds you heard were the slamming of pistons against mechanisms or the thundering march of hostile O.R.C. soldiers.
The entire place might have been best described as some sort of nightmarish, hi-tech, space-age version of a middle-ages castle.
"Geeze…" Smoke looked around, blinking in disbelief. "I knew the Doctor loved mechanical things, but… this is ridiculous!"
"So this is Myntull's lab, huh?" Cyborg said with an impressed whistle.
They walked on carefully, keeping their eyes peeled for any traps or monsters… and it wasn't long before they came to a fork in the tunnels. It had four different passages; each one looked exactly identical in all respects.
"We should split up." Smoke said suddenly. "We need to find her quickly…"
Robin nodded. "Star, we'll take the first tunnel. B.B and Terra, you take the second, and Cy and Raven will take the third." He looked over to Smoke. "… Can you handle the last one on your own…?"
"Yeah." Smoke said with a nod. "I can handle it." He punched his palm for emphasis.
And so, they parted ways to cover more ground.
Immediately, for the umpteenth time since he'd broken out of the military base… Smoke wished he'd just kept his big mouth shut.
The passageway he was in was extraordinarily creepy… a straight, pitch black tunnel with strange sounds of machinery echoing through the walls… but there was a light at the end of it, so he slowly made his way there.
As he proceeded, he nearly jumped out of his skin when his communicator beeped. He sighed in relief, realizing it was just the communicator, and answered. It was Beast Boy on the other end.
"Smoke! It's a dead end our way… all we found was a bunch of those Orc things!"
"Are you okay?" Smoke asked in concern. "Y'need help?"
"No, we got 'em… but there's no where else to go!"
"Then either Robin and Star or Me have the right passage." Smoke sighed.
At that moment, the communicator beeped again. "Uh… hang on, B.B. Robin's on the other end…"
He switched over to Robin, who was standing over a pile of dead orcs. "Smoke! Bad news… we've hit a dead end! We dodged some traps, and killed those monsters but… there are no more doors."
Smoke nodded. "Beast Boy and Terra hit a dead end, too. That just leaves me and… Raven and Cy."
"No. Just you." Robin corrected. "Raven just contacted me… she and Cy haven't had any better luck; they're pretty lost…"
Smoke paused and sighed. "Look… you guys, meet up with Terra and B.B…. go find Cy and Raven; they don't need to be wandering around lost in this place."
"What about you?"
"Well, since I'm the only one who hasn't hit a dead end yet…" He reached for his revolver. "I'd say I'm on the right track."
"All right. We'll find them. Just… be careful, okay?"
"Right. Smoke, out."
He hung up and placed the small Titan's communicator back in his backpack. Releasing his grip on the revolver, he instead got his shotgun out of the holster and loaded some shells in. With a soft click, he cocked the gun… whatever was beyond this tunnel, he was gonna be ready.
By the time Smoke reached the end of the dark tunnel, he found himself in some sort of strange control room. Numerous screens filled with changing numbers and static encircled the room, and a large control panel with countless buttons, dials, and switches was at the front along with a long window. He looked through, and gasped. Blackfire!
She didn't seem to notice him; her head was turned toward the opposite side of the room looking at a monitor screen that displayed the number, '4: 58'. Four hours and fifty eight minutes left, plenty of time. But what scared him was a pair of needles positioned rather threateningly on either side of her slender neck.
He banged on the window, trying to get her attention. She looked over with a dismal expression, but snapped into joy and cried out when she saw him.
"Smoke! You're alive!"
"Yeah, and so are you!"
"Please… get me out of here…" She groaned, struggling in her bonds. "There must be some kind of control on that panel…"
Smoke searched the panel, and quickly found a large icon on the screen labeled, 'Execution Timer'. He pressed it.
Two options popped up onscreen… "Initiate Execution" and "Cancel Execution". He pressed the latter. Blackfire looked extremely relieved at the needles moving away from her… but gasped when they went right back.
Smoke growled in irritation as another message popped up onscreen… "Password Required."
It gave him several spaces in which to type the password.
But suddenly, he heard Blackfire scream. He jerked his head upwards, trying to see what was the matter.
"Smoke, hurry up!"
He quickly saw the source of her distress, and cursed. Apparently, choosing to cancel the execution had triggered some sort of mechanism. The timer had just changed itself from four hours to … one minute and thirty seconds!
"CRAP!"
Smoke immediately began frantically trying to scan his mind for what might be Myntull's password… and then, he noticed it.
A tiny post-it note on the screen, saying…
'Not-So-Dear Prototype,
LAL RYUO SBEA REA EBLGNO OT SU'Smoke stared in confusion. Was that some kind of hint…?
"Smoke… please… I don't wanna die..." He heard a sob from the other side of the window. Immediately, his mind snapped to work… and it wasn't long before he realized what the password was. The note was a word-scramble riddle. Myntull left it deliberately, and he knew the answer.
Smoke carefully typed into the monitor, "All Your Base Are Belong To Us."
The timer stopped, her bonds snapped open, and the needles retracted into the ceiling, eliciting a relieved sigh from Blackfire.
The door to Blackfire's chamber opened up and he ran through and grabbed her in a tight hug. "Thank God you're okay…"
She nuzzled his neck softly, putting her arms around him. "I wouldn't be if it weren't for you."
"Well… I had help." He said with a sheepish smile.
She smiled slyly, running a hand through his spiky hair. "Maybe… but you were the one that got me out of here…"
Slowly, gradually, she opened her mouth and tilted her head up. He stared for a moment, but quickly caught on and leaned down to her as well, enveloping her in a kiss that lasted for what felt like forever, until…
"Smoke!" Robin yelled, running into the room.
"SISTER!" Starfire squealed, soaring in after him and grabbing both Smoke and Black in a hug that nearly broke their ribs. This, combined with the fact that their mouths were already busy, almost strangled them.
They broke apart, coughing and gasping for air… simultaneously glad to see their friends, but irritated at the rude interruption.
"Uhh… Guys… could you have, like… waited for about THIRTY MORE SECONDS…?" he growled softly.
"Uhh… Sorry." Robin apologized sheepishly.
"Yeah, Bro…" Cy said, just now coming in with Raven, Beast Boy, and Terra. "We didn't know you two were, ah… in the middle of something."
"A touching reunion. Too bad it won't last." A metallic voice hissed from the other side of the room.
There stood Myntull, as if out of nowhere. With no warning whatsoever, his chest slid open and fired off a large dart of some sort that hit Smoke dead in the chest. And with an airy laugh and a flash of light, he was gone.
Smoke sunk to the ground and groaned. "What the Hell?"
"He's gone!" Beast Boy said, stupefied… more than usual.
"But… how'd he do that?" Terra asked.
"It was like he teleported…" Raven guessed. "Or something…"
"Smoke! Are you okay…?" Blackfire asked, leaning down.
"Yeah… I think so…" He reached to pull the strange dart out, but…
Suddenly, his entire body lit up with about 5,000 Volts of electrical energy. He screamed out loud, but only lasted for a minute before everything went black…
Many Hours Later, At The Infirmary In Titan's Tower…
Smoke groaned when he woke up. As his vision cleared up, he noticed Blackfire and Robin sitting nearby.
"Glad to see you're awake…" Robin said. "That much electricity… you had us scared. It should've… killed you." He said softly. Blackfire nodded.
"Myntull…" Smoke groaned.
Thinking about how his nemesis had gotten the better of him once again, he suddenly felt rage and anger well up inside him… he held up his fist and clenched tightly. But when he did, something… unexpected, happened.
A crackling, greenish-yellow lightning bolt shot from Smoke's hand and scorched a nearby wall, causing him to gasp in surprise and Robin and Blackfire to literally drop off their chairs with shock. When the smoke cleared, no pun intended, the gunman sat there with a slightly glowing fist and a dumbfounded expression.
"What… the… Hell?"
Well, it seems like Myntull's little assassination attempt backfired… Well, you know what they say: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Now, it seems Smoke's got some new powers… electric powers. How's everybody gonna react to this?
In the meantime, read and review.
--Count Le Madphantom…
