Well that was a rather explosive finish for the last one...and a long wait.
Raze: Ah yes..constant reviewer one. Well, this chapter's more of a setup for the storyline as it is...we'll see how it goes.
Quar: The monkey meets kitty thing...honestly; I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out.
Still out for Webs/Rae? ducks fireballs hurled by DS That one's iffy...
Aceman/Raeforever: Whoo...another reviewer from the land of IM. Yes, I wondered if anyone would catch the Daimstyl and DWD references there.
Becca: O.o Hello...don't believe I've seen you before unless you have another name on IM. Thanks for the review
Chapter 3
Aftermath 1: Recovery
"Estimated cost of damage to the bridge has already shot into the millions. No deaths were reported and injuries are relatively low due to the lack of people in the area. Damage to the bridge it seems was more noticeable than damage to the people."
Aw no.
The incident that occurred earlier today was a battle fought between a loose gathering of superpowered vigilantes sources now say go by "The Hive Five" and Jump City's local group of heroes known as the "Teen Titans". For more on them, we go to Michael. Mike, what is the general public's reaction to this...brawl since there seems to be no other word for it.
That's hard to say Dana. Certainly the public is always happy to see the Titans in action defending the city, but response to this particular fight is more akin to confusion than gratitude. Bystanders report seemingly reckless actions from both sides such as one titan using a car for a stunt ramp while another person reports getting out of their mini-van only to have a gorilla puncture both tires and casually use the vehicle as a bat against a teenage girl.
You do make a fair point Mike,and while this does seem to be rather condemning of the titans, the other party is by no means blameless. An elderly woman reports losing her reading glasses when a witch stepped on them, and the aforementioned teenage girl is said to have made use of two parking meters as bludgeoning devices.
Both parties involved are being investigated at this point and responsibility for the attack will be settled
The surprisingly calm face of the female reporter vanished in the proverbial blink of an eye to make way for an overhead view of the devastation shown on a gleaming wallscreen. Cyborg saw the results of the battle in a way only he could; through two eyes.
The center of the bridge was smashed out and had sunk into the water, leaving some lighter and more buoyant debris still floating. Judging by the relative destruction, about fifty seven feet of the bridge was gone and eight cars with it. Several support cables were shredded and still floating. The broken ends floated slightly in the water.
No. he thought. Angrily, Cyborg powered his mechanical eye down to a black void and turned aside the cold matter-of-fact precision that was presented through its feed-cables to his altered brain. How much damage did I do?
A smoky haze shrouded much of the battle zone in a misty grey-brown, giving the crumbled edges of the Bay Bridge and its tall mast-like towers the illusion of an ocean graveyard. A dying whisper of a breeze curled the smoke around the towers and snakelike cables only made the scene all the more horrifying.
The waters had calmed from their initial outburst though still remained studded with the lazily floating wreckage of car parts and curved-surface guard rails.
The bridge surface itself was as it always was save for the eyesore that was the destroyed section. Both ends of the explosion's center were savagely torn to bits, girders protruding like shattered bone.
He was shocked.
Shocked and worried.
Man, Rob's usually able to sweep collateral damage issues aside by reminding the authorities that it'd be worse without us there. the hero thought grimly, remembering the starbolt-blasted frame of the Wolfram Concert Hall with Punk Rocket. How's he gonna handle this one?
Before he could even begin to formulate an answer to that question however, every light in the small room, including the videoscreen clicked off, plunging Cyborg into near total darkness. Only a few faint lines of yellow light slipped through a ring of narrow openings around him on the floor. Even Raven would have found the effect rather unsettling.. The effect gave everything a weak golden glow, keeping much of the room in shadows. A faint intake of breath was heard from behind the angled table on which Cyborg lay.
"He will not handle it." a thin voice said grimly from behind the mechanical titan. "Robin will fail."
Cyborg craned his neck around as far as he could, trying to get a glimpse of the elusive observer.
He blinked, glancing down at the restraints holding his body in place. The thickness and intricacy of the bindings gave him greater cause for concern. I doubt even Star could break these on the best day of her life.
"Hey, why am I locked down?"
"..."
"This ain't the tower is it?"
"No."
Cyborg couldn't explain it, but the man left him with a burning chill that seemed to flood his entire body, not differentiating between metal and flesh. "Yo, who are you?"
"My my, you are the curious one." the man whispered. "My identity is not of your concern. Indeed, nothing here is your concern."
"Uh, I think a lot of this is very much my concern."
"You may think that if you wish. It will not do you any good."
"You ain't exactly the most talkative bad guy ever, are ya?"
WHAT WOULD THAT MATTER, WHEN YOUR VERY SOUL HANGS BY A THREAD ABOVE THE ABYSS?
Cyborg's body suddenly spasmed, jerking against its restraints as the left side of his head began sparking, sending faint pink tendrils of energy across his face. Before his body could rip itself in half however, the shock subsided and he slumped back limply, metal and flesh alike steaming.
"Do not exert yourself, mortal." the voice whispered.
What kind of creep is this guy? Cyborg wondered.
"The kind of creep that could kill you if he set his mind to it." his captor said wickedly. "Don't act so surprised. I can read the mind of your companion like a book. What makes you think you would fare better?"
Cyborg strained to turn around in his bindings. The slow hum of a chair turning on a motor filled his ears and the dry rustle of robes was heard. The man made no sound as he seemed to glide smoothly past the helpless titan, a dark hood hiding his face from view and preventing his captive from managing a good look.
Unknown location, unknown bad guy..and I'm trapped. At least this can't get any worse. Cyborg grimaced.
The figure paused, still keeping his back to the prisoner.
"He's all yours, Sebastian." the man whispered, departing through a low archway that led out of the interrogation chamber and into blackness.
Then again...
Something beneath him sounded with a metallic click. With a low hum, the table on which Cyborg lay began moving upwards. When his face was within an inch of the ceiling, a great rush of air exploded from six thin cracks in the floor. Two minute charges blew apart at his wrists and feet, sundering the restraints and freeing him.
"Well now.." he grinned "This is looking better.."
There was a barely audible clicking noise, and the table tilted itself further over the center of a now-lit circle. Glancing nervously at the thin beams of light on it, Cyborg let himself slide from the table, landing on the ground without much noise at all. Looking down, he realized that the light from the circle's edges and the lines within it were not -as he had believed- lit on their own, but from something beyond.
"Oh boy." he gulped, realizing he was standing on a door.
In what felt like slow motion, the door opened; light pouring out from the ever-growing circular opening. Time seemed to stop as the last of the six panels retracted.
Cyborg let out a gasp of surprise and fell-
-five feet.
"Heh..." he chuckled nervously, sweat dripping down his forehead. "Thought I was a goner there.." He stood, looking around outside the circular hole in the ground. "Thought yer little trap would work, didn't 'cha?" he grinned, moving eagerly for the edge.
Then the floor dropped open again, plunging him down once more into a far deeper tunnel; one whose bottom he could not see.
"Aw, that is not cool!"
Lights flared around him, illuminating the shaft to a blinding degree. The silver walls raced by in a blur, reminding Cyborg of a city in the clouds from a galaxy far far away.
Least I still got both hands... he thought, angling his body towards the wall and sliding along the surface as his metal fingers attempted to find hold along the sleek plates. All he succeeded in however, was sending forth showers of sparks and heating his fingertips to the point of smoking.
Then, without warning a dark shape appeared in the middle of the plunge, seeming to blot out all light as it grew around him, sealing the titan in total darkness.
Just as quickly as the shadow had come however, it was gone.
Gasping doggedly, Cyborg found himself on his hands and knees, arms threatening to give away and leave him flat on his face from exhaustion. The fall had taken m ore out of him than he would have thought. His once-watering eye focused and he realized he was staring down at a golden-yellow floor, layered with thin six-sided tiles that seemed suddenly familiar to him.
"So...you have come." someone said with cold mirth. "It has been too long since you have been here."
Cyborg began to rise, joints protesting as he stood against the will of Exhaustion-
-and was sent flying back against the wall by some unseen force.
"Did you think you had the power to face me?" his adversary said, voice growing dark. "I carry a power greater than you could ever hope to possess."
Eyes screwed shut against the pain that wracked his metal body, Cyborg groaned and leaned his head forward, bunching his steel-sinewed muscles as he tried to pull away from the wall in which he was anchored. Ever so slowly, his shut eyes widened into thin narrows, and then bulged open.
Standing before him was a young man, possibly not much older than he himself. The boy's skin was almost as pale as Raven's but possessing a bluish tint to it. Though his appearance was one of a youth; the swept-back hair and pointed chin left no doubt of his identity in Cyborg's mind.
"Blood..."
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Headache...what happened?
"The little witch is awake." someone nearby growled hoarsely. Though soft and low, the noise still stabbed at Raven's head more painfully than one of Beast Boy's punchlines.
"Hey, she's lyin' with her legs ou-" someone giggled.
"Keep your thoughts to yourself, See-more. We don't need to hear them." the voice said again, this time laced with anger.
"You haven't even been here a day! Which of y'all thinks we should beat up the newbie?" a familiar southern voice shouted happily.
Raven groaned at the noise, knowing what was about to come. She'd heard it before, but wasn't sure she could bear it.
"Ah'll beat him up for ya!"
"Naw, Ah'll do it!"
"Naw ya won't, Billy! Billy here'll do it!"
"Billy'll take him out!"
Raven finally reached her limit and made to rise from her prone position and lash out at the people around her. Unfortunately, her mind was stifled in that aspect, and she found herself unable to even use her soul-self or any other powers, much less move her limbs.
What's..."What's happened to me?" she asked herself, finally finding her voice.
The first thing she saw upon finally opening her eyes was an unwelcome sight; the luminous green orb that was See-more's single roving eye.
Managing to speak for her dignity, Raven whispered angrily up at him. "Eye on my face, you jerk."
The villain flashed her a toothy grin, before being shoved away. Another face loomed over her, almost as pale as her own; eyes hidden by a thin black mask.
"The inhibitor's working." he whispered in his low voice. "She couldn't take us if she wanted to."
"Its all thanks to me, you little barf-drinkers!" Gizmo yelled from out of Raven's field of vision. "She'd cream your little butts without me!"
"Yeah, but at least we're still on a team!" Billy laughed. "You're just a tech-boy for Brother Blood."
"If you can call being a ragtag group of thugs a team." the masked boy grinned. "You guys had no motivation in your last job."
"At least we had a job!" the pint-sized former HIVE Five member sputtered, adding a muttered "toiletlicker" to the end of his jab.
"Yeah...robbing museums and regularly getting your butts kicked...successful job that was."
"This time it'll be better!" Billy grinned.
"Tell me about it!" another Billy shouted from his seat on a battered refrigerator.
"This time.." a third whispered from behind a fortress of soft red couch cushions. "This time, Blood's gonna let u-"
"Quiet." the masked boy said suddenly, eyes flaring a deep red. "Are you really stupid enough to discuss this sort of thing when she's awake?"
"You talk like she'll escape." See-more snickered. "She couldn't get out of here if her life depended on it."
"Especially not with Psimon here." Billy grinned. "That guy's cool...with his little pink-glowing brain and all."
"Ya, but you ain't brave enough to tell him that to his face, you yellow-butted cud-muncher!" Gizmo flustered, pouting from his chair over at a crowded worktable.
"And you believe you are?" the hooded man whispered from the doorway. How long he had been there; they did not know, but the odd gleam in his eyes as he drew his hood back told them that the psion had heard enough. Rubbing his forehead where flesh joined with metal and glass, he sighed in exasperation at the collected villains and their prisoner. "Your master believes you necessary for whatever plan he guards in his mind, and I will go along with it for now, but I will not tolerate the foolishness that seems to occupy your time."
"Foolishness?" Gizmo squawked. "We got a Teen Titan here! You couldn't do that if you tried, you fishbowl-headed brown-noser!"
Psimon's eyes flashed. "Indeed?"
Gizmo suddenly fell forward, beating his head upon the delicate instruments arrayed on his desk as though a bothersome mosquito were flitting about his face. Leaping wildly, he crashed to the ground, scratching frantically at his face which seemed to shine and crack.
Psimon smiled cruelly, watching the boy's skin suddenly harden and shine as though it were becoming glass. "Fishbowl head indeed." he chuckled, eyes dimming as he watched the unwitting victim fall onto his back. Ignoring the gasping as Gizmo's face painfully returned to its normal state, he looked at the others with a piercing gaze. None of the others in the room dared to speak, fearing their words would be turned into a living nightmare by the greater villain. "Yet the child has provided me with one small morsel of information. Which titan was it that you captured?" he asked, eyes roving the room.
"The girl." the masked boy answered quickly. "Raven, I believe."
They backed away as Psimon's eyes suddenly glowed again. Fortunately, no punishment was forthcoming, but when the glow faded they saw his eyes had become a deep red and his grey eyebrows now paled; turning to a papery white color. His normally stern face cracked like dried plaster, splitting into a malicious grin.
"Raven? How interesting..." he hissed, voice seeming to echo with a deeper being speaking behind him.
"What's going on?" she asked, snapping into her mind.
"How did you live?" something roared.
Raven whirled around, obsidian cloak billowing about her ebony skin and leotard. She found herself jerked from her Nevermore Realm back to an earth.
A dead earth.
An earth she saw only in her old nightmares. Flames fell from the sky like a scorching rain, burning the streets, shattering the buildings, and hissing into the oceans of molten rock that flooded the surface. No life existed on the planet save the four-eyed crows that called harshly in the never-ending twilight of the red sky.
"This is what should be. It is not." the same voice whispered. "The Gem lives. She should be no more."
Raven gasped, an echoing sound from her astral form in the astral world. "This future was stopped"
"Stopped, but not destroyed." the ancient form said from behind her.
Raven spun around, glaring at the red-eyed shade of a man. "Who are you?"
"The better and more capable of your father's associates."
"Trigon did not share power."
"Trigon
DOES not share power." Psimon smiled, breaking into a mocking
laughter as Raven stood back, eyes wide. "Did you think you
could destroy the slayer of dimensions completely? A Demon is not so
easily vanquished."
"To return to earth then would destroy him." Raven retorted, scrambling for some measure of confidence. "He was weakened in his last attempt-"
"-because last time help was unwilling. You may have summoned him, but some part of your heart prayed the crossing would fail. This time, he shall have the power he needs to arrive at full strength."
"There won't be a 'this time'." Raven answered firmly.
Psimon's eyes flickered open again, and he looked past the HIVE villains at Raven, still lying unconscious but now sweating on the medical bed. "Oh I think there will be a 'this time', Daughter of Scath." he grinned wickedly, turning and making his way across interrogation chamber. "Students of Blood," he called back. "Make of that what you will."
"So we're going to beat the titans?" Billy asked, while a double popped behind him and added on a short "this time?" with a grin.
The laughter of Psimon was the only answer.
