The Eastern Wall...
Starfire panted heavily, her fists glowing an alien green. Her eyes glowed green as well, emulating the energy that ran beneath her skin.
Starfire was an alien. Born on a distant planet called Tamaran, she was gifted with the power of flight, and the ability to hurl emerald 'star-bolts' at her enemy. Coupled with her supernatural alien strength, and Starfire was a formidable force.
Her way of thinking however, lets her down in numerous ways.
Firstly, she refuses to kill. Sure, all the Titans have such morals, but they are willing to break them if their lives are in critical danger. Starfire however, would rather see herself get killed before she murdered anyone.
Secondly, she is extremely naïve.
That is why, when she first encountered these intruders, she truly believed that they were potential friends.
She was dead wrong.
Upon hearing the alarm and exiting her room, she was shocked to come face to face with a masked man standing right outside her doorway, holding what appeared to be a weapon of some kind. Naturally, being Starfire, she smiled warmly to greet this newcomer.
"Hello! Perhaps we should gather the team so we may do the 'getting-to-know-you' event that is so widely celebrated upon-." She was violently cut off by a knee to the chest.
The wind was forced out of her as the knee ploughed straight into her abdomen and lower chest. She stumbled unwillingly, taking a few shaky steps back as she inhaled and exhaled deeply. She was bent over slightly, clutching her stomach in pain.
The man struck again, delivering a vicious uppercut with the butt of his rifle. Starfire's head snapped up and backwards and she stepped back further, with the figure unrelenting in his attacks. He reared his fist back and delivered a fatal blow for an ordinary human being, crashing straight into the bridge of her nose and sending her flying back onto her bed.
Starfire of course, was no ordinary human being.
The figure saw that she was still breathing, so with a smirk and a loving gaze at her voluptuous body, he swung his MP-5 around and aimed it at her head, still smiling as he did so.
Then the strangest thing occurred.
His gun was ripped out of his hands, striking his head repetitively. Once, twice, it smashed into his skull, the butt of the rifle now covered in his blood.
But the attack never relented. As long as the man was still standing, he would get hit. After the seventh swipe, the man dropped roughly onto his knees, slipping slowly out of consciousness. One final swipe aimed directly at his forehead did the trick, forcing him to fall backwards and knock himself out on the floor of the bedroom.
"That's enough Raven." A stern voice ordered, and the gun dropped to the ground with a loud clatter.
"Starfire, are you ok?"
Starfire raised herself out of bed and rubbed her head. The loud throbbing was slowly ebbing away, until all that remained was a slight bump on her forehead. She nodded tentatively, but Robin was not convinced.
"Cyborg, check her for injuries."
The mechanical man lumbered in and performed a quick bio-physical scan of Starfire, but other then a few bruises, she was perfectly normal.
"No fracture or swelling, no internal bleeding, not even a broken nose. Starfire is a tough girl to crack Robin, you should know that." Cyborg said warmly and brushed Starfire's head.
Robin didn't bother replying.
"Where is Beast-Boy?" Starfire demanded.
Beast-Boy was, ironically, playing a counter-terrorism video game simulation when these soldiers arrived. For four hours, he boasted, he played non-stop.
Beast-Boy's DNA incorporates the ability to shape-shift into any known animal on Earth, and perhaps alien species as well. Due to this, his skin has permanently turned a shade of lime-green, but he doesn't mind.
Beast-Boy departed his room in a rush once the alarm rang. The door hissed open as he approached and glided shut after him.
He ran, only to run into the fist of a towering soldier, knocking him flat on his back as a masked face peering curiously down towards him.
"Who are you?" Beast-Boy demanded, but he received no response.
At least, no verbal response.
The soldier instead opted to swing his MP-5 around himself and point the barrel at Beast-Boy. Beast-Boy's eyes widened. He recognized a weapon when he saw one.
His quick thinking and brutal actions saved him, albeit barely.
He closed his eyes and willed himself to transform. Within a few moments, he felt muscle upon muscle appear on his limbs and torso. He felt great clumps of hair grow on every square centimeter of skin. He felt his upper-body grow exponentially in weight, forcing him to lean on his dinner plate-sized knuckles. He felt his teeth grow to obscene lengths, and his ever-present overlapping tooth grew as well, until it almost reached his nose.
He had become a gorilla, and he simply roared in hatred.
"Oh Jesus! They have a Gorilla! A ing-." Beast-Boy decided he would go first. Wrapping his sausage-like fingers around his ankle, Beast-Boy proceeded to lift him into the air and bring him whistling down at a great speed.
At that moment his team-mate squeezed the trigger of his sub-machine gun, the silenced projectiles popping out and striking Beast-Boy's back and side, enraging him even more as he slammed the other soldier into the ground like a fly-swat.
Beast-Boy roared again and lifted the soldier from the ground once more, this time hurling him like an Olympic Hammer-Thrower towards his partner. They both fell like skittles and slid across the floor before coming to a stop beside a wall, out cold.
Beast-Boy felt his knees go weak and he collapsed on his massive chest, panting heavily as the pain from the bullets wracked his body.
"Must…Change…back…"
He felt muscle diminish and shrink, his fur receded back into his skin, but he also felt something else. He felt seven foreign, metallic bodies pop out one after the other from his back, clattering to the ground as his skin healed over.
The pain from the bullet wounds was gone, simply because there were no bullet wounds to cause it! Beast-Boy's power withdraws its energy from his DNA, each animal that he transforms into nothing more then an unnatural DNA pattern in his system.
This allowed Beast-Boy to heal all physical wounds simply by transforming into another creature.
Beast-Boy stood up and despite what he had just been through, chuckled.
"That was too easy."
He ran down the corridor to find the others. Starfire's room was the closest to his, so he decided he should check on her first.
The Panther had not struck yet.
He simply clung to the shadows, an ocean of darkness surrounding him.
He was in what he believed to be the infirmary ward of the Tower. Medical equipment was neatly stored in glass cabinets that lined the top-most part of the walls. An Operating table was situated on a small island in the centre of the room, its cold metallic surface presenting a sense of uneasiness in The Panther's heart. Two recovery beds hugged the eastern wall, each separated by a dull blue dividing curtain. Heart monitors, drip-feeds, even a defibrillator or two were located on the left-hand side of each bed.
The Titans had state of the art hospital facilities, but he hoped that he would not need to use them.
He emerged from the shadows, his machete hanging loosely from his right hand.
At that precise moment, the bell rang out, awakening all the sleeping occupants. The Panther was slightly startled, but he regained his composure and left the infirmary.
He soon realized however, that the ringing bell drowned out all other noises, especially the essential sounds of bullets, so he decided to fix that problem.
Lucky for him, he had just reached the Titans control room.
It was a small room, rectangular with roughly three meters width and seven meters length, but once he entered he was presented with an amazing sight. Television screens filled the entire northern wall, and controls for what appeared to be the surveillance cameras that littered the Tower protruded out from underneath the monitors. To his left a gargantuan computer terminal enveloped the whole western wall, buttons and controls he had never seen before flashed and buzzed like a cheap prop in a B-Grade Sci-Fi movie.
After a few moments searching, The Panther found a small red button on the wall adjacent to the computer terminal that was labeled 'Alarm'. He flicked it, and the alarm bells cut off along with the flashing red sirens.
He made to leave, but the camera terminal intrigued him. He flicked a button that was labeled 'Living room'. A television screen near the center of the wall flickered to life, beginning with a grainy blue and slowly coming in to focus. He saw two men, one talking frantically into his radio, whilst another paced impatiently.
He flicked another button, and saw a soldier brutally attack the tall girl named Starfire. His eyes widened and he made to leave, but his eyes caught something else on the screen. He saw three figures approach from behind the mercenary, with the cloaked girl extending her arm and leading the pack.
She would be safe, for the moment.
Another button switched, another monitor flickering to life. He was now thoroughly absorbed in viewing what was currently unfolding in this home. He saw a green gorilla, big by even primate standards, casually throw an armoured soldier into another soldier, knocking them both off their feet and into a wall.
One more button, he surmised, and he would leave. He was presented with another nasty shock when he saw himself in the monitor, and every movement he made was portrayed in the TV. But that's not what he was so shocked about.
There was someone else in the room!
The Panther whirled around and came face-to-face yet another mercenary, his combat knife raised and poised to strike. He gripped the machete and swung hard at his neck, but the mercenary ducked and rolled backwards, exiting the room. The Panther followed, and made to strike again. The mercenary side-stepped the slash, bringing his own knife
forward as he did so and lunging for his throat. The Panther took hold of the mercenary's left hand with his own and brought him closer, kneeing him in the chest and knocking all life out of his lungs. The mercenary swooned, but recovered quickly and ducked another swipe from The Panther.
"Stop ing moving!" The mercenary roared in anger as he swiped at The Panther's chest, then head, then chest again, only to be avoided by tucking his stomach in and arching his back forward slightly, then arching back, then arching forward again. The mercenary was getting irritated, and it definitely showed.
His wipes were becoming erratic and uncoordinated, until one final swipe and The Panther saw his advantage. He gripped the lunging arm and pulled him closer once more, however this time he twirled the mercenary around until his back faced him and used the mercenary's own arm to lock him in a headlock. The mercenary struggled, but the blade he held backhandedly began to sink into his throat, so he dropped it with a clatter.
"Good choice." The Panther said before breaking his neck swiftly and painlessly.
He turned back to the room. He noticed something when he was exchanging slashes with the mercenary that he had failed to notice before when he first walked in. He entered the control room once more and gazed to his right.
The Eastern wall.
His blood ran cold at what he saw.