Chapter Four: Doors Close, Doors Open
Daylight streamed into the museum floor as a small mouse crept out of a small crevice in the Museum wall, blinking as its eyes adjusted to the light. This little creature was exactly the same as any other mouse, with perhaps a few nitpickers commenting on its bright green color.
Beast Boy prepared to change back into human form. By this time, his friends must have got into the basement, and-
The sound of running caused Beast Boy to scamper behind a suit of armor and watched three of black-clad terrorists run past it, black machetes drawn.
Wait, machetes? he thought. Weren't terrorists supposed to have, you know, guns, and stuff?
In fact, the only enemy that he remembered using machetes was… Oh no.
A sinking feeling of dread freezing his blood, Beast Boy ran after the Legions, dodging between exhibits, trying to remain unseen.
Raven may not care about him, but he cared for her, and that was all that mattered.
Wasn't it?
Pushing the thought out of his mind, Beast Boy kept following the Legions, pushing his mouse form to its limit.
He got as far as the main hallway when the 'terrorists' suddenly turned around and a pair of black boots stepped out from behind a passageway in front of him.
"Why hello, Beast Boy," Legion sneered. "Long time no see," he said, before suddenly driving his knife into Beast Boy.
Or rather, the spot where Beast Boy was right before he jumped aside, Legion's blade burying itself in the polished marble floor. With almost eerie precision, the other three Legions moved to encircle Beast Boy, now in human form.
"Only four of you?" Beast Boy asked with false bravado. "Sorry, but I kinda expected, well, more."
At first the Legions stared at him incredulously, before breaking into laughter. "You wanted more, Beast Boy?" a voice said from the second floor balcony.
Beast Boy looked upwards, and his blood froze cold with terror. Up on the balcony, were at least fifty Legions.
"Well then my friend," one of them said. "You've got more."
(scene change)
Raven shuddered as a group of Legions renewed their assault upon the slow-moving shield that she had erected around herself to protect the hostages, their black blades sending up arcane sparks each time they hit it.
"Stay away from my friend!" Starfire yelled as she rained starbolts upon the attacking Legions, blasting them away one by one-
"Starfire watch out!" Raven shouted from behind the shield-
Starfire turned only to see a Legion jump from an empty shelf behind her, blades raised to stab her-
only to find himself slammed into the shelf by Blackfire, causing the heavy shelf to topple backwards, crushing another group of Legions under it. "Bad move," Blackfire said, before she slammed her forehead into the Legion's skull a second before she dropped the dissipating body to the floor.
"Sister, you have saved my life!" Starfire said joyfully.
"Hey, you're my sister- if anyone's going to kill you, it's going to be me," Blackfire joked (or so Starfire hoped). "Raven, you all right?"
"I'll be fine," Raven said. "You two go help Cyborg!"
"But what if-"
"I can take care of myself," Raven said, although her strained voice implied otherwise.
"Raven-"
"GO!" Raven said, and for a moment, the shield faltered. "Please, Cyborg needs your help, and your presence could disturb my concentration."
"Why thank you," Blackfire said, smiling. "Well, Starfire, what are you waiting for? Let's go!"
(scene change)
Beast Boy dodged yet another attack from a Legion, and desperately looked around for a way to escape. None but his largest animal forms would have made any useful impact here, but all of Beast Boy's plans went out the window when he realized that he had the museum's exhibits to worry about.
Of course, they were also the only things that were keeping the Legions safe from Beast Boy's full wrath. The Legions knew it too, but unlike Beast Boy, they didn't need to change their form to prove dangerous. It was only a matter of time.
And so it was, that despite Beast Boy's successful attempts to evade the Legions' attacks, that he soon found himself corralled in the middle of the hallway, surrounded by Legions advancing towards him in a slow, deliberate march, long knives drawn. And when they closed into striking range, they moved with snakelike speed to stab-
"Bloody hell," they said in unison, looking downwards at the blades in each others' chests. "We should of seen that coming."
And through the tangled mess of arms and metal, a small green mouse ran into the forest of legs in front of it. And as Beast Boy ran from space to space, he found that the confusion did more damage to the crowded Legions than a T-Rex ever could as they futilely struggled to kill the mouse, maneuver and refrain from stabbing each other at the same time.
I'm out! he thought, as he ran out from the Legion crowd. I'm- what?
Beast Boy found himself facing the entrance of the museum, the entrance to the basement, where he had been heading directly across the hall behind him.
And in between the two of them, still dangerous despite their depleted numbers, a small Legion army rushing towards him, confident that they had the advantage.
However, they failed to see the obvious fact that Beast Boy now had some running room., and charging forward in the form of a cheetah, Beast Boy leaped at the Legions, just as they had expected him to do.
What they did not expect him to do, a moment before he hit them, was to change into a tortoise in midair. A five hundred pound Galapagos Tortoise.
(scene change)
Cyborg backed himself against a corner, his laser cannon blasting away at the serried ranks of Legions in front of him. Despite their superior numbers, the combination of Cyborg's skill and high-tech heavy weaponry proved to be more than enough to keep them at bay. "Is that the best you got?" he jeered. "Come on, if you guys wanna be target practice so bad, you shoulda at least painted some bullseyes on your uniforms! At least that way you'll be official targets!"
Suddenly, from behind the front ranks, a Legion jumped out with both blades drawn, and before Cyborg could do anything, his machete sliced through the armor, only narrowly missing the circuitry.
Reflexively, Cyborg brought his gun to bear down upon his latest attacker, and at such close range, even the stun setting was enough to send the Legion's crumpled body dissolving as it flew backwards.
But as Cyborg turned back to face the Legions, he was shocked to find, that in the split second it had taken him to repel that attack, the Legions had managed to close to within close combat range, and Cyborg could only watch as they prepared to hack at him-
There was a sudden bright flash of light, and the Legions immediately in front of him disintegrated into black smoke. "Took you two long enough!" he said smiling, as he saw Blackfire and Starfire form up behind the Legions, firing starbolt salvo after starbolt salvo into the Legions' ranks.
"Aw, Cyborg, aren't you nice," Blackfire said, flinging another bolt at the approaching Legions. "Maybe-"
"Sister!" Starfire shouted, pointing behind Blackfire, who turned quickly and blasted a Legion leaping out at her, only to see as the black cloud dissipated, a group of Legions running toward the direction of the stairwell, carrying several artifacts.
Blackfire prepared to blast them down as well, when the Legions were thrown to the ground and sent sprawling, struck down by several cannonballs cast into their midst.
As one being, all the Legions turned to face whoever it was who had dared try stop them.
They didn't have to wait long.
"Azerath Metrion Xinthos!" Raven yelled, the familiar incantation bringing a ladder spinning into, and then smashing lengthwise into the Legion horde, cutting a swathe through their already decimated ranks. She followed up with another
"Oookay-I guess I shouldn't forget your birthday," Blackfire quipped, seeing the devastation Raven wrought upon the Legions. She turned back to Raven, but what she wanted to say froze in her throat when she saw what was creeping behind Raven.
It was all a distraction, Blackfire realized, as she shouted out a warning to Raven.
But it was too late. One of the Legions behind Raven struck her on the head with the butt of his weapon, and moved to grab her as she fell down, unconscious-
Suddenly, a group of Legions fell down the stairwell, the cause of which soon became apparent. With a loud bellow, a green rhino trampled its way down and proceeded to charge into the Legions as Blackfire swooped down and snatched Raven from the stunned Legion's arms, narrowly missing each other by a few inches.
Those few Legions who were not brought down by the rhino's initial charge, were left stunned, but not for long, as Cyborg and Starfire brought their weapons to bear upon them.
"Aw crap," they said, in an oddly comical chorus, and in less than a second, they found themselves struck by a barrage of starbolts and laser beams. Battered and broken, what few stragglers who were left soon found themselves outgunned, with predictably fatal results.
(scene change)
Or at least that's what Blackfire told Raven when she woke up on a few minutes later. They were on a bench across the street from the museum, the Jump City Park behind them, and Raven was lying down with her head on Blackfire's lap. In front of them, the scene seemed only marginally more chaotic as medical staff attended to the hostages, the police keeping the press away.
"In short, we won- as usual," she said, before adding, in a more serious tone, "You all right?"
"I'll be fine, don't worry," Raven replied, rubbing the back of her head to try relieve the throbbing pain she felt.
"I hope this isn't going to be some kind of tradition between you and Legion," Blackfire said, a familiar mischievous glint coming into her eyes.
"Hey Starfire," she called out, seeing her sister approach. "Did you break anything important?"
"No I did not, Blackfire," Starfire huffed, "and neither did any of us."
"We didn't break anything? All that fighting, and we didn't break anything? Raven, did you hear that? What a wasted day."
"Well, you did break some of their shelves, as well as seriously messed up the place," Cyborg said as he walked up to them, a distinguished looking elderly man in tow.
"if it makes you feel any better, they were expensive hardwood shelves," the man said, extending his hand. "Henry Jones. I'm the curator of this museum."
"You sure we didn't break anything expensive?" Blackfire asked.
"Surprisingly, no. Whoever it was that decided to rob us picked the worst place in the museum to raid. All we had stored in that particular section of basement was just used to store replicas of historical artifacts, basic equipment for the museum, that sort of thing. As your friend said, the only things that did suffer damage were a few shelves, replicas, and a scuffed floor or two."
"Well, that was considerate of Legion," Blackfire said.
"There wasn't anything dangerous in there?" Raven asked, surprised.
"I don't think so, but I'm still having an inventory check done. If anything's lost, you'll be the next to know. Nobody messes around with my museum," he said, before glancing at the museum. "You know, someone once said I belonged in a museum. Looks like they were right." he mused, a faraway look in his eyes. Then he laughed softly, and turned back to the Titans. "Sorry," he said, waving off their bemused expressions. "An old man's memories, you understand."
"Speaking of memories," Cyborg said, looking around, "anyone remember where Beast Boy went?"
"Right here," Beast Boy said, walking out of the museum.
"Where were you?"
"I thought I saw someone try to sneak out the back of the museum, and I tried to check it out."
"Yeah, right," Blackfire snorted. "You sure you weren't running away from what I was planning to do to you?"
"Huh? What did I do?" Beast Boy asked angrily, as the other Titans looked at Blackfire, similarly confused.
"Hello? You almost got Raven killed!" Blackfire said, gesturing to the Azerath lying down on her lap. Raven tried to defuse the situation, but it was too late.
"What are you talking about? I saved her!"
"You charged right at her!" Blackfire retorted.
"This does not look good," the curator said, backing away slowly as the other Titans moved in to try calm things down.
And while all that was happening, a homeless man got up from the bushes behind the bench, where he had been lying down. Unnoticed in the general hubbub, he hobbled unsteadily off, a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand that became slightly emptier as he took a swig.
Not that alcohol would have any effect on him apart from slaking his thirst, but Legion felt that it paid to keep up appearances. Besides, it was a good thing alcohol didn't interfere with him; he had a lot to think about.
Especially the way Blackfire and Beast Boy seemed to be fighting over Raven. Yesss, he thought, taking another drink from his bottle, that conversssation cccertainly proved interesssting.
Very interesssting indeed.