Anything, Anytime, Anywhere For You
Chapter Forty-Nine
"The Clock Is Ticking"
A/N: One year ago I began this story.
One chapter left. Just one chapter left. Isn't it unbelievable? Well, for the second-to-last chapter, I'll dedicate it to Waffler's English Teacher, who should listen to Waffler and use this story as an example in English class. XD. Here goes 49.
The following chapter will be in imitation of my favorite live-action television show. Cookies, Brownies and Flan to the first person to review with a correct guess of what show that is.
The Following Chapter Takes Place Between 11:00 PM and 12:00 AM.
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11:00
It was eleven pm exactly when the raid on The Brain's headquarters begun. The Titans could not wait for Robin to finish his fight, and they had no idea that he had already been captured by Slade. They charged forward; Cyborg blasted the doors open with his sonic cannon and they ran inside the lavish, gigantic building that had been an office before the Brain transformed it into his hideout.
As they ran inside, they found the lobby deserted. They also found a single elevator, and the Titans crammed into it. The elevator slowly moved up the side of the building, and as they did it was quiet.
Which was rarely a good sign.
11:01
The elevator ride to the top floor was quick, and cut even shorter. Halfway up the elevator gave a lunge, as if someone had jumped down the shaft and landed on the roof.
A moment later the top of the elevator melted open; it was Hot Spot, still under the Brain's control. He looked at all the Titans inside and revved up his flame hands; ready to melt the entire inside of the elevator and turn the steel transportation machine into a giant oven. However, as he shot his flames; Raven caught them with her powers and sent them right back at him. Hot Spot was knocked back, but still on the roof.
"This is bad." Beast Boy groaned. A moment later Hot Spot threw another fireball; Raven caught it and returned it, but as she did he threw a second, smaller fireball. The good news was that it missed all of the Titans; the bad news was that it hit the floor and the metal bottom began to melt up.
Cyborg blasted Hot Spot, sending him flying up the elevator shaft. The Titans had no choice but to get off on the floor they were on -- the bottom of the elevator was still melting away, and if they didn't get off they're all have their feet reduced to puddles, and then the rest of them would plummet down an elevator shaft to certain demise.
11:03
The Titans, as well as the single members of the Doom Patrol and HIVE were on the sixth floor. They had many more to climb, and they'd have to take the stairs now. Carefully they ran through the office building's sixth floor, looking for any way to advance. Instead of finding another elevator or stairs of some kind, they found Mas Y Menos and Speedy, Bumblebee and Aqualad's mind-controlled team mates.
Speedy fired arrows at them at once; but Bumblebee and Cyborg worked together to blast them before they reached the group. Mas Y Menos advanced at the group, holding hands and going insanely fast; until Raven grabbed Menos with her powers, hurled him into a janitor's closet and locked him in, and separate Mas from his brother. Without their speed, Terra kicked Mas and he went down, unconscious.
Speedy was proving to be more difficult. He fired his arrows so fast it was amazing; finally Aqualad decided he would have to stop his friend.
"Go on!" He called to the others; and with the fate of the world at hand, they had to hurry. Aqualad used his power over water to destroy a water fountain on the wall and spray a concentrated stream of water at Speedy. Speedy was holding one of his prized electric arrows at the time; and Speedy would up shocked and unconscious.
Aqualad started towards the stairs so he could follow the other Titans, but as he went someone grabbed him by the throat from behind, knocked him in the head, and sent him to the same realm of unconsciousness as he has sent Speedy.
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11:09
The Titans were able to take the stairs all the way to the thirteenth floor before they ran into anymore problems. On this floor, the stairs ended, and the door to get into the next set of offices was locked.
They could easily break it down, but that could alert whoever was on the other side. Raven or Jinx could use their powers to unlock it, but Mento observed that the lock was electronic, and therefore unlocking it with magic would probably cause the alarm to go off. Their biggest advantage was the element of surprise, so they couldn't waste it.
So in the end, Raven agreed to phase through the wall and unlock it from the other side. However, no sooner had she reached the other side, than had a fist grabbed her head. The fist was so large he entire head fit inside it, and the owner swung her into a file cabinet.
As soon as Beast Boy heard the sounds, he yelled the words "Screw the alarm!" loudly, transformed into a bear, and ripped the door off it's hinges. Instantly a shrill alarm began to scream, and on the other side the Titans found five more foes; Mammoth, Gizmo, See-More, Billy Numerous and Kid Wicked.
"Oh great." Jinx muttered, not at all happy to see them.
"Well, look what the snot dragged in!" Gizmo beamed. Mammoth had been the one to throw Raven, and she was still not recovered.
"Wait, you guys aren't under mind control?" Jinx asked her previous crew.
"Hey, some of us like being evil." Mammoth said, but what he implied was even worse.
"You guys go on, I'll deal with the cast of 'dumb and dumber'." Jinx said to the Titans, but Beast Boy wasn't having any of that. Mammoth had thrown Raven into a filing cabinet. So, still as a green grizzly, he ran across the room and tackled Mammoth, knocking him to the ground. Jinx sweatdropped.
"Okay, we'll deal with the cast of 'dumb and dumber', you guys go save the world."
The other Titans obeyed, and hurried to the next set of stairs; however before Jinx could even speak to her former crew, Kid Flash zipped back from the stairs and to her side.
"Now you be careful, I plan on askin' you out when all the fighting is over." Without another word he was gone as quick as he came, and Jinx found herself smiling. Maybe this hero thing was good for something.
"Death to the traitor and her snotty friends!" Gizmo cried, and then he pressed a button and his backpack morphed into a gigantic fighting suit. Jinx knew every trick her old team had, but she did realize it had been a while since he betrayal, and they may have learned some new ones.
While Mammoth wrestled with an angry Beast Boy, Jinx jumped to avoid Gizmo's death laser, then she leapt on top of him and did a single swipe of her dark energy waves; the arms and legs of his battle suit came unscrewed and fell apart.
"Crud, crud, CRUD! GET HER!" Gizmo shouted loudly. Kid Wicked charged at Jinx, but as he did, a large glob of red goo struck him in the face. The goo was in the shape of an X.
"What? You think I'd miss the big climatic fight for the whole world? What kind of guy do you take me for?" Red X seemed to be talking to himself from where he sat on the window ciel. X Jumped down and landed behind Jinx and the two stood back to back as ten Billy Numerouses surrounded them and charged at one.
Red X grabbed Jinx around the waist and jumped high; she used her powers on the floor and Billy, all of him, fell through to the floor below, cursing as they went. Red X let go of Jinx and tossed a freezing disc much like Robin's at Gizmo, freezing his entire body except for his head and keeping him pinned to the wall.
"CRUD! You fricking snot-munching bit--"
Jinx kicked him dead-on in the face, and he was out colder than the ice around his body. She and Red X then turned around, where they found Beast Boy helping Raven up; Mammoth was lying on the ground unconscious. Apparently Beast Boy had cracked him over the head with a table, then a chair, and then his grizzly bear foot.
That only left See-More, he attempted to run at the group, but Jinx did a front-flip, landed right in front of him, and blasted him with her full-powered dark energy blast, sending him flying into a wall, through the wall, and out the other side into an empty office.
"That was for using that damn X-ray eye on me when you thought I wasn't looking, you pervert!" Jinx roared at him.
The Titans then hurried up the stairs to meet up with the others, and when they got there, they were shocked at what they found.
11:24
On the fourteenth, and final floor of the building, the Titans were all gathered around a machine; the Brain's "body" he was in all the time. When Raven, Jinx, Beast Boy and Red X arrived on the top floor, they saw the "body", but they did not see one important part.
"Dude, shouldn't the Brain be in there?" Beast Boy asked.
"Yes Garfield, he should be." Mento replied.
"Garfield? Well I guess you can become a cat, isn't that ironic?" Red X looked as if he was going to laugh, but Mento cut him off before he could.
"The Brain's Brain isn't here. This makes no sense."
"Oh, yes it does Mento."
Mento, and all the Titans turned around to find Madam Rouge leaning against a wall. She had a deliciously evil smile on her red lips, but there was something foreign in her eyes. Mento's jaw dropped, though the others did not know why.
"What did you do!" Mento asked, sickened.
"I merely preformed a neurological transplant; the first successful one in history." Madam Rouge said snappily. "Sadly Rouge did not survive the proceedure."
"Huh? I thought that was Madam Rouge." A confused Cyborg asked.
"No." Mento said, still sounding as if he was trying to hold back hurling. "That is the Brain."
The Titans naturally gasped, and Madam Rouge laughed.
"Indeed. I must admit Mento, I was hoping to have your body, but this one will have to do for now. Though I kind of like being a woman." The Brain, in Madam Rouge's body, laughed hallowly.
"I'm going to miss your mechanical speech." Mento apparently had some sarcasm tucked away for a rainy day.
"And I shall miss fighting you; but now, alas, the time has come for YOUR DEMISE!" The Brain extended her arm forward, since she had Rouge's body and powers, and grabbed Mento by the throat. However, the arm didn't stop growing, and it went right out the window, breaking the glass with Mento's back.
"MENTO!" Beast Boy shouted, but he was too late.
The Brain was not content dropping Mento, apparently feeling that superheroes usually escaped from that sort of thing. Instead the Brain thrust his arm down, down, down deep and smashed Mento against the pavement with her own bare hand.
Beast Boy screamed, and so did Mento, though his was much quieter since his windpipe was being crushed. Only Mento's legs had shattered on the ground, he was still alive. Beast Boy, who had once had to bite off Slade's hand, realized he had to break his vegeterian oath once more. He transformed into a crocodile and bit right through Rouge's arm.
The Brain screamed, Mento however was safe. Yet she stumbled back, growling with frustration for a single moment; and then Robin leapt in through the shattered window and tossed a new kind of explosive disc at The Brain. The disc hit and The Brain's new body as well as his old mind were blown into millions of tiny bits, which showered the room and everyone in it.
11:34
"You know," Raven's tradition wisecrack came. "It gets expensive replacing my clothes all the time. Maybe from now on we can watch the bloodbaths?"
"Robin! You have returned!" Starfire was grinning, but it vanished. "And you are . . . violent."
"No time to explain Starfire, we have to destroy that mind-control machine!" Robin said to his wife, though something about him was off. The Titans all followed him into the next room, where a gigantic metal machine sat in the corner. A green light was shining from the middle of a circular part, and Robin nodded.
"That's the core; destroy that, and the world regains it's humanity."
"Easy done." Robin II grinned at the first Robin, and threw a bird-a-rang at the green light; however the bird-a-rang bounced off about three feet from the core.
"It's protected by a force-field." Robin said to the other Titans.
"Eh, I have an idea." Jinx waved her arm and the floor crumbled as it had when she fought Billy Numerous, and the machine fell through to the floor below and smashed into the ground -- though it did not break.
"I'll take it from here." Terra said, and a second later a large piece of parking lot became surrounded in a yellow glow, lifted up, flew through the broken window and then flew directly over the machine. Terra released it, and the parking lot chunk destroyed the machine.
"Nice work Titans." Robin said.
"I'm just glad this is finally over." Cyborg grinned. He looked at Bumblebee, remembering the kiss they never finished, and started to lean in. However, Beast Boy interrupted.
"It's not over! Mento's hurt dudes!" Beast Boy yelled to everyone.
"I can heal him, relax." Raven shook her boyfriend by the shoulder. "Let them have a moment, they earned one."
"Damn straight we did." Bumblebee grinned and went to kiss Cyborg, but this time Robin spoke up just before their lips touched.
11:42
"Oh no, you stupid idiots, it is not over by a long-shot. Not at all." Robin said, and every face in the room turned to him, flabberghasted.
"Robin? What is the matter?" Starfire asked.
"I'm sorry, Robin can't come to the phone right now. He's all tied up." Robin said, and then he grabbed a loose piece of skin by his ear and yanked his face off -- to reveal robotics and a television screen.
On that televison screen was the white-beared, white-haired, eyepatch wearing man who none of them recognized at first.
"Did I forget to mention this was one of my robots, and I only sent it to help you to get your attention?"
"... Dude, who's the pirate santa?" Beast Boy asked.
"You killed my son and my daughter is locked in prison on Tamaran. Both Robin and Terra betrayed me when I offered to take them on as an apprentice, and you even killed the future incarnation of me as well as my demonic side brought on my Trigon; I figured you deserved to see my face after all that." Slade hissed.
"Slade?" Raven blinked.
"Indeed little girl, though you may call me 'Master Slade' if you prefer. While you were having a fun wedding on another planet and that idiot Brotherhood was enslaving Earth, I had been going for a prize . . . the amulet of Tec'olt." Slade said.
Only Jinx, Raven and Red X gasped.
"You stole that from the french museum? Impressive." Red X muttered.
"The Amulet of Tec'olt? The ancient demonic pendant that is said to bestow invincible powers to whoever breathes in its essence?" Jinx was shocked.
"That would be the one dear. Trigon told me about it a while back, before his defeat, and I decided since you were all out of town and the world was in chaos already, I may as well go and become unstoppable. And as much as I've enjoyed these last few years, I believe it is time we settle this once and for all. So come to the Titan's Tower, where I will be waiting for the final showdown. Robin's with me, don't worry, he's safe. So long as you show up before midnight."
"Hey, it's 11:50 right now! How the hell do we get halfway across the country by midnight?" Kid Flash asked.
"Let me finish my sentence!" Slade snapped. "So long as you show up before midnight on Friday."
"Friday? It's Wedenseday. Why are you giving us forty-eight hours?" Raven asked, skeptical.
"My dear Raven, you know why. Because you're going to go looking for the Pendant of Schezkia, the only force that can rival the Amulet of Tec'olt. I'm not an idiot, I may as well let you go looking for the Pendant -- after all, it's in a place much worse than a french museum." Slade was grinning; and then the robot went offline and fell over.
Starfire looked ready to fly back to Jump City now, but instead she turned to Raven.
"What is this Pendant, and why does Slade say we will look for it?"
Raven sighed. She didn't have the heart to tell Starfire; but luckily Jinx did not have that problem.
"The Pendant of Scheizka and the Amulet of Tec'olt are incredibly powerful magical items. If we go against Slade without that Pendant, he'll kill us before we have a chance to attack." Jinx said grimly. "But the Pendant is impossible to get to."
"Why do you say that?" Kid Flash asked.
"Because Brother Blood hid it somewhere, and only he knows where -- and he's dead now." Jinx told them.
"So we have no way to stop Slade?" Cyborg asked.
"Fraid not Sparky. Brother Blood's dead and burried, we're not getting any infomation from him, that's for sure." Bumblebee sighed.
"Maybe we are . . ." Tim Drake rubbed his chin, and everyone looked at him. "Hey, I have an idea, but if it's going to work, we'll need Blood's body, and we'll need to get back to Batman."
12:00
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Well, there you have it; the end of chapter forty-nine. My God, it's almost painful to think that there is only one chapter left. Yes, that is all -- just one. Soon however I shall begin new fics, and update old ones, and hopefully the love shall continue.
I don't know when Chapter Fifty will be online; as soon as I'm happy with the ending. Ta-Ta, my beloved readers.
WILL OUR HEROES FIND THE PENDANT OF SCHEZIKA?
WILL THEY FIND A WAY TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE DEAD BROTHER BLOOD?
WILL ROBIN ESCAPE FROM SLADE?
WILL SLADE FINALLY BE DEFEATED?
WILL CYBORG AND BEE EVER KISS?
WILL I STOP ASKING QUESTIONS?
THE ANSWERS TO THESE AND MORE QUESTIONS IN THE EXCITING FINAL CHAPTER!
ANYTHING, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, FOR YOU!
CHAPTER 50!
COMING
SOON!