Disclaimer: The Teen Titans aren't mine.
Gunsmoke And Black Roses—Chapter Twenty-Four
It was extremely late at night, about midnight, to be exact… and a lone figure was pacing the floors at Titan's Tower. All of the Teen Titans were asleep… except for one.
There was something foreboding about the inky black night and the pale moonlight streaming in through a nearby window. Something about the combination of moonbeams and shadows created a kind of pale illusion; you didn't necessarily see what was really there, you saw a twisted, distorted reflection of it…
A tall, lanky figure with spiked hair was making his way towards the bathroom with a large, brown-leather sack. Looking around as though to make sure no one was watching, the silhouette stepped quickly inside the bathroom. A moment later, the locking of the door was announced by a small clicking sound. It didn't open again immediately.
About ten minutes passed in dreadful silence. Nothing at all happened. But then, the door opened up slowly once again… and the figure emerged, now dressed differently. Cautiously and nervously, the figure clicked the doorway shut again. Grabbing the sack, it went back to the garage.
Going into Smoke's small room, the figure hits light switch… and there stood Smoke himself, now dressed in the black, spiked, armored suit that Slade had given him.
Sighing, he opened up his closet and stuck the sack into it. He shut the closet door gently, and then strode over to his workbench. Grabbing his guns and his chainsaw, he strapped them on.
He grabbed a piece of scrap paper off the bench and a pen from his pocket. Hurriedly, he scrawled out a message and stuck the paper to the inside of the doorway with a slice of tape.
He looked around at the surroundings and sat down on his couch slowly. He sat there for a long time, not moving at all except for an occasional jerk or start as though something had startled him. His jumpy attitude and the fact that he was still awake at this hour suggested he had business to attend to…
With one last heavy sigh, he turned the lights off and exited his room, closing the door back as he did so.
A pair of security officers wearing black S.W.A.T. outfits and red goggles strode down a hallway with large laser cannons hefted in their arms.
"Relax guys. We can take it from here." Said a voice from the end of the hallway. The guards nodded and left.
The owner of the voice was none other than Bumblebee, leader of Titans East. Behind her stood a pair of young boys in white and red, who appeared to be no older than thirteen or so.
"Si, nosotros estamos apto amparar el quimico!" One of them chimed in. His white helmet had a yellow visor and a plus sign. A single lock of red hair protruded from the visor.
"Mi hermano esta correcto. El quimico es protegido." This one looked exactly like the other, except with a minus sign instead of a plus. These guys, of course, are the twins, Mas Y Menos, the resident Spanish speed-demons of Titans East.
"Uh… I think they said 'we can handle it'." The one who said this was speedy, clad in his red suit and very Robin-esque mask.
"Yeah." Aqualad agreed, running a hand through his jet-black hair. "Although… I can't figure out what kind of chemical could be so important that they asked us in person to guard it."
Earlier that day, a man had come to the Titans East Tower asking for assistance. A dangerous and rare new chemical was being stored at a high-security fortress complex in Steel City that night, and someone was needed to guard it… and who better than local heroes Titans East?
"Who cares what kind it is?" Bee said with an indifferent shrug. "It's our job to guard it until tomorrow."
Speedy looked around the corridor. The chemical itself was hidden inside a lab. The lab was locked behind a pair of massive, reinforced titanium doors at the end of the hallway. The hallway was fortified completely by automatic beam turrets programmed to gun down any and all intruders. And to even get into this hallway where they were, a huge laser grid would have to be passed, sounding an alarm if the grid was tripped.
"Hmph. No offense, but it seems to me it could guard itself." Speedy grumbled, twirling an arrow between his fingers. "I mean, come on… have you even taken a look at these security systems?"
"That's probably true. I don't see how anybody could possibly get in…" Aqualad sighed in response. "But still, if anybody's lucky enough to get past all that… we'll be here to stop them."
"Hmm… I'm curious. If this is such a super-secret thing they're doing, how would anybody know about it to steal it?" Speedy yawned.
"Never underestimate a criminal mind." Bee said matter-of-factly. "News travels fast and far in this city…"
Unbeknownst to these five superteens, they weren't the only ones out and about tonight…
As a guard stood watch outside the entrance to Fort Steel, he didn't notice in the dark, overcast night that a shadowy, distorted silhouette was skulking towards him.
He had just enough time to feel an unnaturally powerful arm lash out from the shadows like a viper and feel an iron grip close around his neck… because a moment later, he shrieked as his body lit up with countless volts of electricity.
He groaned and stopped moving, unconscious and smoking slightly. He was thrown against the entranceway and slid off slowly, completely out of it.
The assailant, none other than Smoke (who, in addition to his new uniform, was also wearing a large, baggy hood that hid his entire head.), stepped up and kicked the incapacitated guard out of the way with a flick of his boots.
Gazing at the massive fortified doors, he smiled. With a swift motion, he reached into his pack and removed a long, thick cylinder with red coloring and the letters 'T.N.T.' stamped onto the side… a stick of dynamite.
He took out eleven more of these to make a dozen, and then a big roll of ducktape. Grasping the TNT in one hand, he taped it up into a bundle and taped it to the doors. Taking out a silver lighter and sighing darkly, he lit all the fuses and did a few massive flips far backwards to get out of the way.
The lit fuses burned for a few moments, each tense second seeming to ring with silence. And then, the night was turned into day for a few moments, accompanied by an explosion loud enough to shake the very ground on which we stand.
The charred, broken doors teetered alarmingly and then came tumbling down with an inner-ear shattering, metallic crash and the hissing sizzle of smoldering embers.
Smoke stepped over the rubble, the spurs on his boots clicking as he walked. Slowly and with a dark purpose, he made his way into the fort.
The explosion hadn't gone unnoticed. Speedy, who'd been lounging half-asleep on a wall, started out of his light slumber as the explosion echoed down the long corridor. He blinked.
"… What was… that?"
"Er… Un explosion gigante?" Mas suggested.
"Si… mucho grande." Menos piped in.
Aqualad shifted nervously. "Uh… Maybe it was just thunder or something…"
"It's not even raining." Bumblebee sighed, rolling her dark eyes. "That was definitely some kind of explosion."
"Are you trying to say someone's breaking in?" Speedy asked, arching an eyebrow. "We haven't even been here an hour!"
They rudely interrupted from their conversation by a shrill alarm and an array of flashing red lights. Five pairs of eyes turned towards the shimmering red laser-grid at the far end of the corridor.
Someone was walking through it. A guy in all black suit, but with golden skull-shaped shoulder pads… silver spikes on his shoulder tops… and several weapons strapped to his body.
He wasn't actually making any attempt to avoid tripping the lasers, but rather, was just striding nonchalantly through, as though he really didn't care if he set off the alarm or not.
Immediately, the security system thundered into action. Every single pair or laser beam turrets in the place… all 36 pairs of them… swiveled into position and opened fire in a sudden storm of red lights, loud buzzing, and searing heat.
The figure broke into a sudden run at inhuman speed, leaving a steaming, laser-fire-marred, crater where he'd been standing mere moments before.
"Whoa… he's fast…" Aqualad said, jaw dropping.
With a loud clanking noise, a hatch opened up in the roof and a massive pendulum-style steel blade swung outwards as a surprise trap.
Smoke sneered under his breath and pulled his chainsaw off his waist, extending the blade with a flourish. A split second later, he cranked the beavertooth up just in time to sidestep the trap and slice the approaching blade in half. While the two halves were still in midair, he karate-kicked both of them, sending them flying towards the Titans East.
"Ay! Tenga cuidado!" Mas Y Menos shouted simultaneously, zipping out of the way in time to avoid being crushed by two tons of flying steel. When the Smoke cleared, they poked their small heads out from behind the debris and went, "Phew… Eso era cercano…"
"Who is this guy…?" Aqualad wondered aloud.
"Whoever he is… he's dead now." Speedy growled, drawing his bowstring with an explosive arrow. Taking careful aim at Smoke, who was now blasting the turrets apart with lightning bolts, he shot the arrow.
With all the turrets zapped into submission, Smoke turned his shimmering hazel eyes, hidden by his hood, towards the arrow. With reflexes no normal person could muster, he whipped out his revolvers… which, courtesy of Slade, had been heavily modified.
Both revolvers had their cylinders removed, and replaced with tube-shaped ammo clips attached on the underside, allowing them to fire far more than just six shots at a time. The inner workings had been tuned up and rigged so that they now fired in full-auto fashion, like Uzis. Switchblades had been mounted onto the grip, allowing for close range attacks. In addition to the lasersights Smoke had added, they also now had built-in flashlights for combat in dark areas. Their color scheme was now silver and black.
With an astonishing rate of fire, the revolvers spat a stream of bullets that ripped the arrow apart in midair long before it even came close to hitting him. The resulting explosion shook the building.
"… Damn! No one should be that good of a shot!" Speedy swore angrily.
"I'll take care of this guy." Bee said, shrinking down to bug size and flying towards him at high speed.
Smoke, not having noticed this, was still walking calmly down the hallway… until he felt a couple of high energy blasts from Bee's stinger weapons… right on the butt.
"YOWCH!" He yelped, grabbing his backside and hopping about, cursing loudly and frantically. "You little bitch!"
She laughed and buzzed in circles around his head. Growling, he brought up his revolver's bladed handle in an attempt to splat her like a mosquito. Unfortunately, she buzzed out of the way and he just hacked himself in the forehead, prompting another string of obscenities.
"Like shockin' people, do ya?" He snarled. "How about getting shocked back?"
Smoke formed a sphere of greenish-yellow ball lightning in his hand and detonated it. The resulting explosion of electrical power didn't harm him, but it blew Bumblebee several feet back and zapped her back to normal size.
She groaned and shook her head, crawling up onto her elbows. Smoke, fed up, pulled out his shotgun, also modified by Slade.
The shotgun was modified from a ten gauge to an eight gauge, and it was sawn off even further. Instead of having to reload after each shot, it had been renovated into a pump-action model, allowing Smoke to fire up to twelve shells in rapid succession without reloading. It's large, now metallic, handle had an axe blade attached for melee combat. Like the revolvers, it was now black and silver.
"Time to die, bug lady." Smoke said calmly, taking aim and cocking the gun.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Five shots rang out in instants succession, but Bee never felt them. When she opened her eyes, she gasped. A wall of water was between her and the needles from the shotgun, thanks to Aqualad. The water, having blocked the shots, crashed down onto Smoke and knocked him back with a sharp cry.
Aqualad emerged from the water and grabbed Smoke. Lifting him up and twirling him around above his head at high speed, he hurled him into a nearby wall, where he slammed into it and made a dent, then slid slowly off.
The young Atlantean sent a tornado of water spinning through the air at Smoke, ready to finish him off. Smoke, however, was not one to be beaten quite so easily.
"Hey Pansy Boy… didn't your Mama ever tell ya that water and electricity don't mix…?"
Smoke sent a lightning bolt at the typhoon of water, sending a powerful electric charge through it… right up into Aqualad.
In a flash of light and a shower of sparks, he screamed and was thrown to the side by the bolt. Smoke chuckled darkly under his breath, getting up. A few more arrows, a la Speedy, came flying his way but he blew them apart with a few well-placed shotgun blasts.
Tired of the archer, Smoke removed his rifle. An insanely long barrel with a silencer on the muzzle, a sturdy black scope complete with infrared and night vision, and a golden hair trigger made this incarnation of the gun much more deadly than the last.
A deafening bang split the night whilst a pair of explosive rifle slugs blew the unlucky Speedy across the room, badly wounded and unconscious… he was officially out of the fight.
Reloading, Smoke took a deep breath and turned his head in time to see Bee flying at from his left, and Aqualad attempting a tackle at his immediate right.
Thinking fast, Smoke leapt into the air and the two heroes simply collided with each other… a moment later, a lit stick of dynamite dropped down from the air and the stunned pair had to scramble out of the way to avoid being blown to bits.
However, they couldn't get quite out of the way fast enough and were sent reeling through the air by the blast, thumping into the ground… both out cold.
"… You're good. Real good. But not as good as me." Smoke said calmly, holstering his weaponry and starting towards the doorway again. He was, this time, interrupted by a headbutt to the belly that knocked him down.
Mas Y Menos were still in his way. Zipping towards him, Mas leapt onto his neck and Menos grabbed his legs.
"Get offa me, you Mexican midgets!" He screamed angrily, zapping the Hell out of them with a surge of electricity. They tumbled off with a pair of soft moans, and he kicked them away like footballs.
Grinning and lighting a handful of TNT, he tossed the red sticks at the huge doors, and blew them apart utterly. With no one left to stop him, he strode through… and came dashing out a moment later holding a sealed test tube filled with a sizzling green liquid.
"Smoke… Smoke? Are you still up?" Blackfire whispered, walking into his room. "I wanted to talk to you about somethi—"
Smoke's couch was empty.
Her eyes widened. She turned around to leave, thinking he might have gone to the bathroom… and that's when she noticed two things. Number one, his truck was gone. Number two, there was a note taped to the back of his door. She pulled it off curiously and read it silently to herself.
'Dear Whoever-Finds-This,
Sorry to leave so late and without warning, but I had a few late-night errands to run. See you guys in the morning; I'll be back soon.
Yours truly…
--Smoke'
Surprised and a little worried, Blackfire sighed and hovered back off towards Star's room again, making a mental note to ask him in the morning.
"Impressive. Very, very impressive." Slade mumbled listlessly, examining the small test tube that had just been handed to him by a kneeling figure in black.
"I kept my end of our deal. Now… can you tell me where Myntull is or not?" Smoke asked. "I'm tired of breaking laws…"
"Of course. I always keep my promises…" Slade said formally. "But the answer is simple my friend. I thought you would've figured it out by now."
"What're you talking' about?"
"My boy… Your Dr. Myntull is…"
Smoke leaned up onto the toes of his boots in eager anticipation.
"… Right behind you."
…
…
…
…
…
…
As Smoke turned, he had time to see a flash of metal as a robotic tail lashed towards him, accompanied by a gale of electronic, static-filled, insane cackling.
All went black.
