1Chapter Four: Skills of a Semi-Mad Man
"Hello?"
"It's about time. I was beginning to suspect you weren't up to the task. That like you're predecessor, you wouldn't meet my expectations."
"Play your mind games with him, not with me. Where's my money?"
"Where's my delivery?"
"In a unmarked van in a location I don't feel particularly prompted to disclose to you, until I get my payment."
"And I don't feel I should pay you until I have it."
"Don't take me for an idiot Slade, I know how you work. Give me confirmation that the transfer has been made, and I'll take you to it."
"Very good. Very good indeed X. Is this confirmation enough?"
A screen lit the almost completely dark room. It showed two bank accounts, both with the names blocked, one much larger than the other in terms of money. Slowly, information scrolled across the picture, until it came up, "2,000,000 dollars has been transferred from R. Vager to T. Drake.". And it had that authentic seal of the International World Bank on it, guaranteeing the authenticity of the deal.
"Alright, follow me. I trust you can avoid being seen?"
"Child, I am a shadow. Not even you know where I am as we speak. You are looking over there, when in fact, I am right here."
He stepped into a slightly lit area beside X, revealing his black costume, gray armor, and the most imposing characteristic of his body. The mask, that infamous mask. Totally black on one side, and orange on the other, with a single eye gazing out from behind it. X however, was unimpressed with this display.
"Whatever, come on."
It was only a few minutes before they arrived in an alley on the other side of the city, traveling by the rooftops and through the shadows. No one suspected two highly dangerous supervillians were right above their heads. Inside of the alley was a banged up looking black van, that seemed to have a lot of weight in it.
Slade walked over, and opened the back. Inside was what looked like a mix between a turbine
and a small Tesla coil. He ran his hands over it, inspecting it with a confident smirk, though you couldn't tell.
"What is that by the way? I nearly broke every bone in my body getting it out of that guy's lab."
"This is the beginning of a new age, a production unit of such potential that it can outperform a supernova."
"Ok... What does it do?"
"It's of none of your concern."
Slade whirled, a gun ready. But Red X was already gone, off into the shadows of the Jump City underworld. The criminal mastermind nodded, smiling. The boy was good, perhaps in time he might prove to be everything that Robin was not. Perhaps... But first the matter at hand.
TEEN TITANS!
Flying... Boundless joy... It was the perfect way to relax, get your mind off of things, just get down to that basic level of happiness, cheerfulness, and overall goodwill. Especially, if you happened to be from a far away planet, called Tameran.
Starfire was smiling broadly as she skimmed the waters of the Jump City Bay, waving to 'boats of fishing' and others as she went by. Raven meditated, Cyborg worked on the T-Car, Beast Boy played video games, Robin trained, Starfire flew. Each of them had their own little thing they did, this was hers. She especially loved it at sunset, when the water would be died a mix of glorious colors, mixing and unmixing in the clear sea...
She went a little lower, and put one hand to the water, cutting through it as if it wasn't even there. Giggling, she began to do 'figures of 8's and other such things over the water, just letting all of the bad emotion stored up during the day flow out, so that she might start bright and fresh tomorrow.
So lost was she in her own little 'happy place' (Which happened to be very big for the young Tameranian princess), she almost didn't here it when her communicator went off.
"Yes?"
"Starfire, where are you? You've been gone for almost two hours."
"Hehe, look out the window."
Robin glanced out the large window wall of the common room, curious. Then he saw a small figure hovering above the water, waving vigorously. That girl... She was naive, but that really just made her all the more sweet, "Alright, just checking in."
Meanwhile, Cyborg was re-analyzing the data he had collected from that little race. That other car, it had been incredible, but the half-robot titan was sure that he could beat it. He had realized several key faults in the structure and propulsion system, and was working to improve them. Then they would see who was the best around...
"Hey Cy."
"Hey BB, how's it going?"
"Alright... Can we talk?"
Oh man, not again. Why does everyone come to me? First Robin, then Raven, now Beast Boy? If this is another... "Sure, what about? Hand me that wrench."
Beast Boy did as directed, sitting down beside a box of tools, "Promise not to tell anyone what I'm about to say?"
"Ya, ya, I never do."
"...I like Raven..."
Cyborg smirked, "Well, it's finally out in the open. Man, I thought I was going to have to lock you two in a room and check in after a few days."
"...Wait, you knew?"
"Uh-huh. It's not hard to tell."
"...Like, how obvious is it?"
"BB, we've been friends since before we joined the titans. I know you. A lot of things are obvious to me that aren't to others."
"Oh... Good..."
"Though, Raven being an empath and psychic, I doubt she could've missed it."
"...Alright, I'll take it as a no and go on with life."
"Whoa, whoa, what are you talking about? Screwdriver."
"Well, if she knows then obviously she doesn't like me. Think about it, how many girls through boys they like out the window?"
Cyborg sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "How many girls are half demons from another planet?"
"I see you're point, but still..."
"Look man, what I said is I doubt she could've missed it. I can't really say. The only way you'll know is if you go up and ask her."
"She'll blow me to kingdom come!"
"Won't be the first time. Pliers."
"I dunno Cy..."
"Beast Boy, I don't know what to tell you. I can't read minds, and I'm not asking her for you."
"What if I ask her and she say's no?"
"Then she says no. You go on as friends."
"...Thanks man, that helps a little."
The changeling got up, and began to walk away, when Cy got out from under the car to get another tool, "Hey B!"
"Ya?"
"What did her brother say to you the day he left?"
Beast Boy grimaced. A lump developed in his throat. He had almost forgotten about that to... Yet another thing to worry about...
"...I've read the signs off you, and I'll warn you now. If you ever, in any way, shape, or form, hurt my sister... If you so much as think about doing something that will brake her heart... I'll come back, and... castrate you."
Beast Boy gulped.
"After that I will commence to pull out every one of your major organs, starting by dragging your spleen out through your mouth. I will take what's left of you, and rip that into tiny shreds. And I will take the shreds, grind them into a powder, and throw the powder into the deepest volcano I can find. And after that, I will hunt down your soul, and without hesitation, rip it in two. Now, I've never experienced this, and I don't think it would destroy you, but having one's soul cut in half can not be a good feeling. Are we clear?"
Beast Boy was frozen in terror, his face white, "Crystal."
Einderan crouched down to be eye level with him, "Are you sure? I don't want any confusion on this matter. Confusion could cause problems, and problems could cause... the deaths of any possible future children you ever hope to have. So, do you have any questions? Anything needing to be stated again in a manner simple enough for your brain to comprehend it? Anything at all?"
"No, I think I got it."
"Good. Remember you little half-pint, immature, happy-go-lucky, lazy, insignificant waste of power, if you so much as cause my sister a moment's pain, I'm coming back and you'll be nothing but a grass stain on a window in that tower that you live in. I don't have mercy, I don't have hesitation, any and all damage you do to my sister will be repaid a thousand times over, and a thousand times again, until the only part of your being still existing is the part able to feel pain. Did all of that get through your skull?"
Beast Boy nodded dumbly.
"Good. Well then, goodbye, and may God smile upon you." Einderan said in a cheery tone, patting Beast Boy on the back. The traumatized changling walked absently back to his friends, very pale.
"Dude... You seriously don't want to know."
Just as Beast Boy was about to exit the garage/hanger, Robin entered. The boy wonder had a solemn, yet strangely cheerful look on his face. One of those looks that you really don't want to see cause you don't know exactly what it meant.
"Guys, I just got a call. It seems that our good buddy X is currently hiding out in a condemned warehouse a few miles east of the city. We leave as soon as possible, and we do it quietly."
"What if this is another prank call? Remember when that other guy said he had found Mod's hideout, just so they could get us to come to a surprise party?" Cyborg asked, hurrying to finish his improvements just in case."
"Uh-uh, this was from the police chief himself, one of his undercover agents reported in a few minutes ago. And besides, it's worth a look isn't it?"
"...How did I know you were going to say that?"
So, after several quick conversations and a few minutes of preparation, they were off. The T-Car was in it's newly installed stealth drive mode, and Raven was doing her thing, traveling in the shadows.
But, unbeknownst to them, a figure was watching them. Peering out of a pair of high-tech binoculars at the vehicle making it's way through the city with a smirk, he mumbled to himself, "You're mine now Red."
TEEN TITANS!
There it was, the proverbial condemned hangout. You definitely wouldn't suspect anyone was living there, from the outside there didn't even seem to be a clear way in. Not to mention it didn't have power, any modern comforts at all for that matter. Yet, the thermal imagery and other sensors confirmed that in fact there was electricity, running water, and a person inside of the warehouse.
"Alright Titans, quickly and decisively. He probably doesn't know we're here, but if he is expecting us he'll have the entire place full of traps, so be on your guard. And no matter what, don't let him escape, we may never get another chance like this."
"Roger."
"Right."
"Got it."
"Understood."
They all did their final preparations, ready for that patented two word phrase that would unleash their fury on whoever was in the building. And that phrase came out of Robin's lips in a whisper, "Titans, go."
He burst in through a window, Cyborg and Beast Boy came in the other side through a rusty door. Starfire flew in from a hole in the ceiling, and Raven just emerged from the shadows. Robin was the first to see X, who was sitting a desk with his back turned to Robin.
"Freeze X!"
The supervillain almost choked on the sandwich he was eating, and hurriedly pulled the mask back on over his face. He whirled around, throwing several 'X' shaped explosives that only just missed the boy wonder.
Cyborg and his changeling friend busted through a large pile of crates, firing and charging the villain respectively. It didn't take long for X to take them out of commission with a newly improved short-circuiter and a new knockout gas strong enough to take down a Tyrannosaurus. How did he know? Well, it just got it's first field test, and it was working spectacularly.
Starfire came with a vengance from above, nearly blowing his head off with a Starbolt, before he could shoot a large power-sapping X that wrapped around the Tameranian, causing her to plummet to the floor, completely drained.
"Azarath, Metreone, Zin-AHHH!"
Before she could complete the incantation, yet another gadget was used on her. This time though, in didn't cover her mouth. It stuck to her, and delivered a shock with the force equivalent to half that of a lightning bolt, and while it wasn't lethal to the half-demon girl it was very painful.
He stood, breathing heavily in the center of the Titans. But he was smirking behind the mask, "It's called escalation. You beat me last time, and I got better. You're just too far behind this time."
By the time this little speech was done though, the teenage super-hero force were already on their feet, mostly recovered. X was quickly deciding on a way out, and was about to slip into his invisibility to slip out a secret emergency exit, when a low hum was heard. Low, but distinguishable.
About that time, there was a large explosion on the roof, and lasers rained down from the gaping rift that once covered the area. The impacts and falling debris kicked up a cloud of dust so thick that for a number of stunned moments no one could see.
Then it cleared, and before them stood a slightly familiar figure. He was tall, but not as tall as Cyborg, though he looked about as old. Though, he was a little taller than Starfire. He wore a black shirt and baggy, gray cargo pants that seemed to be made of pockets, each seeming to have something in it. And over this, an ankle length white coat, looking like it was straight from a lab. Yet this time, he wore no helmet or goggles to hid his face. His brown eyes gazed out from behind a large pair of glasses, with a bright and cheerful inner light as well as a burning flame of anger reflected in them. His hair was a similar color to his eyes, but incredibly thick and curly. He had no beard or mustache, and was currently looking down at the sprawled supervillain with his arms crossed, his face a mixture of a smirk and a glare.
He pointed to X, and spoke with a voice that dripped venom, "You."
"Who the heck are you?"
"Who am I? Come on, you rob me and you don't even bother to look to see who I was? The stupidity of it all." He shook his head, pushing his glasses further up on his nose. When he looked back, his smile had become insane, his voice matching as he said, "I'll answer you anyway. I AM PROFESSOR CURLY! THE SEMI-MAD SCIENTIST! AHAHAHAHA!"
He tossed his head back in laughter, arms spread wide. He was clearly not all that stable a person, but came under control slightly as he advanced on X, "And you are going to give back what you took from me."
"Pfft, your just another nerd who thinks he can play hero!" The super-thief yelled, throwing down a smoke bomb and high-tailing it out of there.
"Just another nerd? I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW I'M THE KING OF NERDS! TAKE THIS!" Curly reached into his coat, and pulled out several large pieces of metal, snapping them together to create an impossibly large rifle-like weapon. He aimed into the smoke, not even bothering to aim, as it hummed and gathered energy to fire.
"This one's straight from me to you jerk, complements of Curly Corp.! LET'S DANCE SUCKER!"
The weapon finished charging. There was a silence again, the only sound being X's movement, trying to get out in the smoke. The titans only had to take one look at this new lunatic to know now would be a good time to run.
And indeed it was.
With a roar that rivaled a jet taking off, beams of energy spouted from the barrel of the weapon like burning hail. They cut through the smoke, hitting anything and everything in the 180' arc in front of Curly as he swept the gun back and forth. Then he took off into the smoke, laughing still, disassembling the weapon and replacing the parts in his coat as he went, "Come back! We're just getting started!"
"Come back? You've got to be kidding, come get you arrogant, overconfident, curly haired nerd!"
"And proud of it baby!"
Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire could do nothing but run after the two as they dashed into the night. Not that it was hard, this 'Curly' guy was turning everywhere within a two mile radius into a battle field.
"With aim like that you couldn't hit an elephant with a bazooka!" X jeered, quite confident in his escaping.
Curly stopped dead in his tracks, thought a moment, then put his pistols back in their holsters, "Good idea!"
What he pulled out next resembled somewhat like wide brief cases. They had handles on the top, and were roughly composed of 6 long rectangles each. They were stacked on one another, three tall, and two across, with the flat ends of each chamber pointing forward. He set them on the ground, and hit a button.
Each rectangle opened up at the end, revealing a missile lodged inside, which after a three second countdown and lots of insane laughter, launched in rapid succession. X watched them rocket towards him, perplexed. They came nearer and nearer, and he readied himself to dodge to the side at the last second and avoid damage.
When of course the missiles, which were about twenty feet away, suddenly split into a swarm of smaller ones that nearly filled the air. Red X's eyebrow twitched. He decided that he was going to jump to the side, just to see how much good it would do him.
The general area of Red X was soon covered in small explosions, lighting up the night like the rising sun. Curly smirked as he approached the now-burning field, looking for a corpse or a captive.
What he found wasn't what he was expecting. He found a villain, that was now bleeding and very ticked off, heading straight for him. The lab-coat wearing rouge drew a pistol quick-draw style, firing several shots that grazed X, one making semi-solid contact with his arm, but after that the thief was on him.
It become clear the weak point of this insane scientific teen. Close combat.
Red X treated him like a punching bag, kicking and punching with wild abandon, knocking this new guy down with a satisfyingly hard slam. Yet, to Curly's credit, he got back up rather quickly, and now he was able to dodge the attacks thrown at him pretty well, blocking the ones he couldn't dodge. But it was clear that he was not going to be able to win this fight.
The super-villain grabbed the Professor's wrist, and neatly flipped him over his shoulder. Curly turned out to be surprisingly gymnastic though, and managed to twist around in the air to land on his feet, and this time he had a gun already trained on X.
"Bye."
A yellow-green bolt of what looked like lightning discharged itself, striking X with enough force to knock him straight onto his back, groaning. He had a trick up his sleeve though, and shot Curly with his own energy weapon, an X shaped laser that did enough to send the rouge sprawling.
Not liking the odds of this current fight, the supervillain made a prudent decision that now was a good time to be leaving. And a very right assumption it was. He didn't know what kind of tricks this idiot would pull, and wasn't in the mood to find out.
But he failed to remember the fact that he had originally been attacked by five super-powered teenagers. Which now plowed into him full force, much too hard for him to hope to block it. He slid twenty feet before coming to a halt, after being hit by a rhino, a mixture of black magic and starbolts, and finally the concussion of one of Robin's explosive discs and Cyborg's sonic cannon colliding in the patented 'Sonic Boom'.
Curly groaned, shaking the stars out of his vision as he sat up. When he saw X on the ground, he dashed over, oblivious to the five people staring at him. Grabbing the villain by the front of the costume and shaking him, he yelled, "Alright buddy, now where is it? Where is that generator you took? Answer me!"
"Hehehe..."
"What's so funny?"
"And you called me stupid?"
"Huh?" Curly followed his gaze, and suddenly realized a very grievous mistake in his plan. Now he too was surrounded by the Titans, and they did not seem to distinguish between him and the thief he was holding.
"Oh crap... Um... Ya, if you guys could give us a few minutes it'd be good." he said, turning back to interrogate X some more.
Robin pulled out his staff, "You're both under arrest."
"ME! WHAT DID I DO!"
"Destruction of property, unlawful use of weapons, possession of illegal weaponry, possession of concealed weaponry, not to mention speeding, reckless driving, and several hundred other traffic violations."
For about five seconds, no one moved. Then Curly, in an act of desperation, rolled, grabbed X, and got him in a headlock with one arm, holding a pistol to his temple with the other, "You let me go or I shoot him."
"WHAT? YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" X yelled in shock and anger.
"Shut up."
"Whoa, whoa, just put down the gun."
"Alright, where is the generator?"
"I DON'T HAVE YOUR STUPID GENERATOR!"
"THEN WHO DOES?"
"IF I TELL YOU I'M A DEAD MAN!"
Curly aimed a little away from him, and fired a warning beam that came dangerously close to hitting him right where it counts, "DON'T TELL ME AND YOU'RE A DEAD MAN!"
"CRAP, I DON'T KNOW! I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW IT WAS A GENERATOR! I WAS HIRED!"
"BY WHO?"
"I CAN'T TELL YOU!"
Curly tightened his grip, "Screw this 'honor amongst theives' bull! You have three seconds before I start shooting. I'm going to start with you're leg, and work my way up! One!"
"You're bluffing."
"Two!"
"You won't do it."
"Come on man, think about this."
"Three!"
And without hesitation, Curly aimed for the bottom part of the man's leg and fired.
"GAH! OW! WHAT WAS THAT!"
"...A stun shot."
"...YOU'VE BEEN HOLDING ME HOSTAGE WITH A STUN GUN!"
"It hurts don't it?", and to emphasize his point, he fired again.
"OW! HOLY! HEY, YOU'RE THE GOOD GUYS, STOP HIM!"
"...Actually, I'm kind of curious as to who hired you now." Robin said, giving his consent to this somewhat.
"You little..."
"Let's aim a little higher shall we? Come on, who hired you?"
"You can't be serious."
"I've never actually tested this gun, I have no idea what it will do."
"No, no, no-"
"Any injury may be permanent and will be extremely painful. Let's play Russian Roulette! One."
"Please, I can't tell you."
"Two."
"I CAN'T!"
"Three!"
"SLADE! SLADE HIRED ME!"
Robin was on the man in a second, knocking Curly a full six feet away, holding Red X by the neck, "You're working for Slade?"
"Oh God..."
"Where is he? Tell me where he's hiding!"
"I'm... Kill me."
Robin faltered, letting the villain fall to the ground slightly, "What?"
"Kill me, now. Just get it over with."
"You can't be-"
"YES I AM! GET YOU'RE LITTLE BUDDY OVER THERE TO SHOOT ME, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW! Cause... It'll be better than what he'll do to me..."
And then, he did something that they never thought they'd see Red X do. He started to cry. You couldn't see the tears, but you could see that he was broken, hear the sobs. Robin backed off, and they all realized the extent of what he was saying.
"We won't say it was you. Tell us, put the uniform up forever, and you can walk right now."
"Don't you see? It doesn't matter... You know him bird boy... He'll know it was me, he'll find out who I am... And he'll..."
"Um... Not to ruin the moment, but can someone explain to me about this Slade guy?" Curly asked in the background, but was ignored.
"Ah man... He's right Robin, you know better than any of us. What can we do?" Cyborg asked, rubbing his chin in thought.
"I have an idea... Will you listen to it?"
"...Can it keep me from Slade?"
Robin smiled confidently, "If this can't nothing can."
"...I'm listening."
Curly decided to use this time to start to edge away, but he was tied up snugly with a birdarang net from Robin, "HEY!"
"And as for you, Curly, you're coming with us to. I want some answers, and I plan to get them."
"Let me out of this you little brat! I didn't do anything!"
"Shut up! Cyborg, get X into the T-Car, Starfire go with him. Raven, you and I will find this guy's car and drive it back to the tower. Everyone got it?"
"Ya."
"Alright, let's get to it."
"YOU ARE NOT LAYING A FINGER ON MY CAR!"
Robin smiled sadistically and got real close to the struggling teen, "Who said anything about a finger? I'm going to give Cyborg a scalpel and his is going to dissect it piece by piece."
"...YOU LITTLE PUNK! LET ME OUT OF HERE AND WE'LL SEE HOW TOUGH YOU ARE! GET THIS THING OFF OF ME! LET ME GO!"
WHAM!
"OW! YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THAT ONE BIRD BOY!"
"I'm sure. Raven, start looking. Unless you want to tell us where it is?"
"BITE ME!"
"That's what I thought. Let's get to it..."
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