Author's Note: Wow, long wait, huh? Sorry guys, I didn't mean to take so long. It was just school again. I would say that I won't take so long on the next chapter, but I've learned by now to just keep my mouth shut about dates. Since you guys have been waiting so patiently, I'll keep this first A/N short. So here's the story.
Good thing I'm taking chemistry right now...
Chapter 11
"I'm not completely sure…" Robin said to Starfire. "Of course we don't know anything definite; it could just be a strange coincidence." The two teenagers were currently seated in front of the large computer in the common's room. Robin was attempting to explain to Starfire the theory he had come up with the evening before. "It just seems really suspicious that not one, but two things have been stolen in the past week."
"Yes, but I thought the items had merely been misplaced; not stolen" Starfire corrected. "In fact, the newspaper article that Beast Boy located yesterday specifically said that no indications of break-ins were found at the laboratory."
"That's the confusing part." Robin said, furrowing his brow. "Hand me the article." Starfire reached over the desk and sifted through the various papers and such that she and Robin had accumulated prior to beginning their work. Locating the newspaper clipping under a couple of books, she handed it to him.
"It says that the chemicals allegedly went missing last Sunday." He spoke after skimming over it for any sort of dates. "When did you say the warehouse said they lost the adhesive products?"
"I believe the men said that they were misplaced some time over the day of Monday."
"Sunday and Monday." Robin thought out loud. "Those were the exact same days that the Hive attacked in the middle of the city for no apparent reason."
Starfire gasped. "Then that could mean…"
"That the 'missing' materials really aren't missing at all." Robin finished. "They were unknowingly stolen while we were out fighting the Hive. They were a distraction."
"But why two thefts?" Starfire asked. "What could Slade want with both of them?"
"I don't know." Robin replied. "We'll have to keep looking."
While the two teenagers were diligently searching for more information, two of the other Titans were also in the room. Raven was in the kitchen reading a book, waiting for her herbal tea to finish boiling. Cyborg was sitting on the couch, half-heartedly watching TV. He was, in all honesty, uninterested in what was on, but had no one to play the gamestation with; Robin was working, and Beast Boy, even past noon, was still asleep.
As if the heavens themselves had heard Cyborg's prayers to alleviate his boredom, Beast Boy walked into the room through the doors from the hallway. He still looked slightly tired, with his hair a bit messy, but was at least clothed as normal.
"Yo BB!" Cyborg called out. "Come play some two-player. I'm dyin' over here."
"Sorry Cy'." The changeling answered groggily. "I gotta go eat somethin' first." Beast Boy bypassed the living room and headed straight to the kitchen where he knew breakfast would be located. He figured that, unfortunately, he would have to prepare his own food, seeing as it was so late and everyone else had already eaten.
When Beast Boy arrived in the kitchen, he was surprised to find that Raven was sitting around the counter. Naturally, he was a bit tense around her, for more reasons than one. He had decided that, despite his slight remaining anger toward her, he needed to at least apologize for shouting the way he did. Acting as they currently were, the situation was still going absolutely nowhere. Besides, he didn't intend to fully take back what he had said, just the volatile manner in which he said it. Hopefully then, they could go back to his original plan of making some sense out of the past week.
Beast Boy paced over to the pantry and removed a small bag of toaster pastries. After popping the breakfasts into the toaster, he began to make his way over to the counter where Raven was seated. At first, she didn't seem to acknowledge his presence at all. Seeing as this was the way she typically reacted toward him anyway, Beast Boy was unsure as to whether or not she was still angry.
"Uh, hey, Raven?" he said tentatively.
"What?" she responded, refusing to look up.
"Can't we, you know…talk?" he asked.
"Why?"
"Well, that's kinda what I was trying to do yesterday." He replied. "And…you know, it got off to a bad start. A way bad start." There was a pause. Though Raven had lowered her book, indicating that she was at least paying attention now, she still wasn't trying overly hard to further the dialogue. "Look, I'm sorry I blew up like that. I was…out of line."
Raven turned her head toward the changeling slightly. Just out of the corner of her eye, she made a fleeting visual contact.
"Okay." She said, turning back to her reading.
"Okay what?" Beast Boy asked her.
"Apology accepted." She told him, still facing her book.
"Oh." He replied. For a few seconds, there was silence between the two. Beast Boy still stood next to her, expecting something.
"Why are you still standing there?" Raven asked him tersely.
"Well…can we still talk?" he asked.
"About what?" she questioned, lacking any enthusiasm.
"Well duh." Beast Boy chuckled. "The stuff that's been going on with us." He spoke fairly confidently considering who he was talking to, but still paused just before using 'us' to refer to the two of them.
"I thought we already tried this." Raven told him. "No."
"Well why not?" he asked, half whining, half protesting. Though he found himself in the same situation as yesterday, Beast Boy did not want to make the same mistake twice and cause a reenactment of the day before.
"Because I already told you," Raven began, slamming her book shut, "There's nothing to talk about." With that, she got up and began exiting the kitchen. Beast Boy though, wasn't about to leave it at that.
"What are you so afraid's gonna happen Raven?" he asked from behind her.
The toaster popped.
Everyone in the commons room turned to look at the two of them, now completely aware that something was going on. The room was enveloped by a tense, thick silence. Raven had stopped dead in her tracks at the comment, clearly upset by it. Beast Boy began to regret asking the question, but still stood expecting some sort of answer.
Raven turned her head halfway to face him. "I'm not afraid of anything." She replied.
The tea boiled.
Though her voice had sounded relatively calm, a seething anger clearly seeped from in between Raven's words. She turned back around and walked out of the room, all eyes following her. As soon as the doors to the hallway closed though, everyone immediately turned their heads toward Beast Boy.
"Uhh…heh" he smiled sheepishly. "Musta' woken up on the wrong side of the bed."
Starfire and Robin grumbled, conceded, and turned back around seeing as they were doing important work. Cyborg did the same, but made a mental note to question Beast Boy later since he had known something strange had been going on for the past few days.
Beast Boy headed back to the stove to remove the now boiling tea from it. After doing so, he stepped over to the toaster and removed his own breakfast. Placing it on a dish, he walked back into the living room where Cyborg was still watching TV.
"Come 'ere BB." Cyborg said to they boy, motioning for him to take a seat on the sofa.
"Hey Cy. What's on?" Beast Boy asked as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
"Oh no." Cyborg cut him off, putting the television on 'mute'. "Don't try to avoid me this time. What was that?"
"What was what?" Beast Boy played dumb.
"That." Cyborg said, pointing to where he and Raven had been standing at the time of their verbal exchange. "Your little 'thing' with Raven."
Beast Boy sighed. "Okay…we got into a fight." He conceded. It may not have been the entire truth, but it was by no means lying.
Cyborg laughed sarcastically. "Oh gee. Really?"
"Yes really." Beast Boy protested. "Dude, I'm serious! I think she's really pissed."
"Well, did you try apologizing?"
"What!" the changeling objected. "Why should I apologize?"
"Cuz' it's usually your fault." retorted Cyborg.
"My fault?" Beast Boy began. "But she's the one that wouldn't…" he cut himself off, realizing that he might be revealing information he didn't particularly want Cyborg to know.
"Wouldn't what?"
Beast Boy paused.
"Nothing. Just…I guess we were both having really bad weeks or something. She didn't really wanna talk about it, and well, we just wound up yelling at each other." He finally said. "I don't know why she only fights like this with me."
"Well, since when do you try to talk to Raven about stuff?" Cyborg asked. "You usually just stick to buggin' her."
"Dude, that's not true." Beast Boy rebuffed. Cyborg merely gave him a 'yeah sure, really' look. "Okay maybe it is, a little bit. But it's just 'cuz I don't want her to feel…you know…left out."
"So. Why do you care so much?" Cyborg asked, a bit of a mischievous smile drawing across his face. In all seriousness though, he honestly was a bit curious. He had always suspected the poor boy had a bit of a crush on Raven, seeing the way he practically never left her alone. Until now though, he had never seriously entertained the thought, given the fact that Raven would most likely have sliced the grass stain into two if he ever made even a slight move on her.
"Well, I…ju…I don't know." Beast Boy stammered, noticeably unnerved. "It just seems like a sucky way to live. Not ever having anyone you can talk to or trust."
"Just 'cuz she doesn't talk all the time doesn't mean she doesn't trust us B." Cyborg assured. "Besides, you know Raven. She's tough … made to last. She doesn't really need one of us there to help her every time somethin's wrong."
"That's dumb though," Beast Boy thought out loud. "You can't expect someone to deal with everything on their own…not all the time. Everyone's got to need somebody sometime, even Rae. Even she's human."
"Yeah, but you gotta remember all the stuff she's been through." said Cyborg. "At least the parts we know about. She's learned to deal with a lot more on her own than we have. She's really independent 'cuz, well, she has to be." There was a pause. "Or, if you wanna think of it this way, maybe she's probably been that way for so long that she's a little reluctant to get too personal with anybody…even one of us."
"I guess that's true." Beast Boy sighed. He slouched down into the couch in a defeated manner. Cyborg's explanation may have been the reason, but that didn't mean he liked it.
"Still doesn't explain why she only gets in these fights with me though." He mused. Cyborg laughed.
"Well, I can explain that one." He chuckled. "It's cuz', again, you're the one that's always buggin' her."
Beast Boy glared. "Come one, not all the time, dude."
"Oh right. Just on days that end with 'y'." Cyborg teased. "You always get all 'up-in-your-face' with the happy, and that just doesn't jam with Raven."
"Well so," Beast Boy protested. "Starfire's happy all the time, she never blows up at her. They do stuff together all the time, and they never get into any fights over stuff."
"Mm, good point." Cyborg conceded, finally losing interest in the conversation and remembering that there was a gamestation waiting to be played. "Who knows? Maybe you're just, special." He picked up the remote control and turned the television's sound back on.
'Special?' Beast Boy pondered. 'Afraid?...Maybe that means she—"
"Come on, let's play some gamestation." Cyborg interrupted. "I've been dyin' all morning."
"Sorry Cy'." Beast Boy responded after a second, rising from his seat. "I gotta go talk to Raven. I think I know what to do now." With that, he dashed over to the hallway.
"Crap." Cyborg slouched in boredom, once again left with absolutely nothing to do.
Beast Boy passed by Starfire and Robin, who were still diligently working at the computer.
"Hey Beast Boy," Robin stopped him. "Where's the fire?"
"Yes, what is your hurry friend?" Starfire also asked.
"Nothing, guys." Beast Boy said frantically as he stopped before them. "I just…talk…Raven…Gotta go!"
"O-kay…" Robin replied as the boy dashed off once again. "Whatever."
Beast Boy, back to his mad dash to the hallway, was almost to the computerized door. When he finally got there, the doors didn't seem to want to open. He pushed the manual unlock button several times, but to no avail. Finally, in a hurry, he pounded his fist down on the button as hard as he could.
The alarm went off all over the tower.
"Beast Boy!" the other three teens shouted over the noise.
"What?" he objected. "It wasn't me! I was just pushing the door button!"
"What's going on?" Raven shouted over the noise after transporting herself into the living room.
"Genius here screwed up the security system." Cyborg yelled, pointing at Beast Boy.
"Did not!"
"Well then how come it went off when you were going ballistic on the door?"
"How should I know! Maybe it's just—"
"Don't get too upset Titans. It was I who set off your alarm system." A familiar voice from the computer screen spoke.
"Slade!" Robin shouted as everyone turned to face the monitor.
"That's right." The masked villain replied. "And now that I've got your attention…"
The alarm shut off.
"Whoa!" Cyborg exclaimed. "How'd you do that? That system was supposed to be hack-proof. How'd you get into it?"
"How I've infiltrated your security systems is probably the least of your worries at the moment actually." Slade responded. "I've got a message for you. And since I'd hate to take up too much of your time, I'll try to keep it short."
"We're not interested." Robin seethed.
"Oh, but I think you will be. You see, I've planted underground bombs all across the city. I didn't bother to count all of them, but I believe the number is somewhere around eighty."
"Oh man." Cyborg whispered in shock.
"Now, my 'deal' is simple." Slade spoke calmly. "Either you surrender the city to me by 11:50 tonight, or—"
"You're insane!" Robin cut him off. "We don't negotiate with terrorists."
"Hmm," Slade muttered. "I thought that might be the case. If that's so, then I should warn you, I can and will set off the bombs. Each.and.every.one. They have exactly a ten minute countdown sequence. If you don't agree to give me the city by that time, come midnight, there won't be a city anymore."
"So what." Raven told him. "That leaves us hours. We can report the authorities in minutes. The entire city can be evacuated in half that time."
"Of course it could." Slade told her. "In fact, that would be a completely viable option if I didn't have every communications line in the tri-city area except your own tapped as we speak. If you make even the slightest attempt at communicating with anyone else, I'll know about it instantly and detonate the bombs within seconds."
"You're a madman." Robin gritted through his teeth.
"Perhaps," Slade shrugged the insult off. "But I should warn you, as a last minute bonus, I've also managed to sneak one of the bombs into your tower."
All five of the teenagers gasped.
"So as I said, your security system is really the least of your worries right now." Slade spoke menacingly. "Anyways, I said I'd keep it short, so that's all of your time I'll take. I'd say you've got a little less than ten hours to come up with a decision. Good luck Titans."
With that, the computer screen phased out of the communication line and returned to the work Robin and Starfire had been doing. No one spoke for a minute. None of them knew exactly how to react. This was definitely a bad situation; possibly one of the worst Slade had ever been behind. Aside from siding with Trigon (which wasn't likely to happen again), he had never done anything of this magnitude before.
"So, um…what do we do now?" Beast Boy asked, finally breaking the silence.
"We stop him!" Robin exclaimed, slamming his fist down on the desk.
"But how?" Raven questioned. "We can't tell any of the authorities, and we have no idea how to find the explosives, much less stop them. We may not even know where Slade is."
"True, but we may—" Robin began.
"What's that?" Cyborg cut him off, pointing to the computer screen.
"This? It's just what me and Starfire were working on." Robin answered. "We were trying to find a connection between the two chemicals that were stolen this week. I guess we know it now though."
"Are those the chemical formulas?" Cyborg asked.
"Yea." Robin told him. "Think you can figure anything out?"
"Maybe." replied Cyborg. "Starfire, what'd you say was the name of those things that were taken from the warehouse?"
"Hexamine-based adhesives." She replied.
"Hexamine, hexamine…" Cyborg thought out loud. "And nitric acid was the other. Nitrogen and hexamine. Where have I heard those before?"
"I'm glad he knows what all those are." Beast Boy muttered comically.
"Oh man!" Cyborg exclaimed. "I can't believe I didn't think of this before!"
"What is it?" Robin asked.
"Cyclonite." He replied. "They use it a lot in the military. When hexamine's nitrated, it makes cyclonite."
"Uhh, you wanna try that in English dude?" Beast Boy asked, scratching his head.
"When you treat hexamine with concentrated nitric acid, it makes a colorless solid that, under good conditions, can blow up like nobody's business." explained Cyborg. "That can be good for us, but also bad."
"How so?" Raven asked.
"Well, let's just say Slade's done his homework with this one." Cyborg sighed. "If we can't shut off those explosives, they have a detonation range of over two-thousand meters. That's more than a mile each."
"So, what's the bad news?" Beast Boy asked. Everyone glared.
"The good news though," Cyborg said, mocking Beast Boy "is that it might be pretty easy to shut 'em all off. Cyclonite is a really insensitive material; it packs a big punch when it detonates, but it takes a lot to get it to do that in the first place."
"What does this mean?" Starfire asked.
"It means that if they're gonna blow up, each and every one of them has to have their own individual detonation signal. Unless Slade's come up with something new, I'd say the only two ways he'd have of doin' this is by wire, or by radio signal. Now, unless he's gotten his hands on over eighty miles of cable, I'd say he's settin' 'em off by radio signal."
"Uh, dude?" Beast Boy spoke up "I thought you said each one would have to have their own set-off thingy. How could one radio thing do all that?"
"It couldn't." Cyborg told him. "What Slade's probably done is equipped each bomb with its own radio adapter. That way, all he has to do is use one signal to set off the first one, and before it explodes, it'll make a signal for the second to go off, which'll then make a signal for the third, then fourth, and so on."
"So if we can stop just one…" Robin began.
"We can keep the whole chain from goin' off." Cyborg finished. "Only problem is findin' 'em. The desensitizer you mix cyclonite with to make the it explosive has a radio-isotopic signature that's pretty easy to trace. Until we know the exact ratio of desensitizer to explosives though, I'll only be able to track the bomb's relative location. We're gonna have to do some searching by foot."
"What about Slade?" Robin asked. "Can we find him?"
"Maybe." Cyborg replied. "By tracking the signatures from all the bombs, we might be able to analyze their locations enough to give a general area of where he could be hangin' out. But again, we'll have to do some looking on foot."
"It's okay." Robin said. "We'll just have to split up." He turned back to face the monitor screen. "Can you track the bombs on here?"
"Yea." Cyborg replied. "Just let me adjust the tracker's settings to focus on 'em."
"Alright. We've got some time." Robin told him. "I hope."
Raven turned on her flashlight once she landed on the cement floor of the sewer. The team had decided that she, Beast Boy, and Cyborg were to search underground for the bombs, using an upgrade in their communicators to track their signature. If either she or Beast Boy found anything, they were to send Cyborg their coordinates immediately so he could arrive and disarm whatever they found. Meanwhile, Robin and Starfire had gone off to search the area they had determined Slade was likely to be in.
So far, it looked as though Raven was equidistant in between three of the explosive's general areas. She decided to pursue the one that was furthest in Slade's direction, logically hoping that it would be earlier in the "chain". Turning a corner in that direction, she could have sworn she heard some kind of scuttling noise echo from somewhere, but shrugged it off considering the amount of vermin typically present in the area.
As Raven neared the signaled location her communicator was indicating, she noticed that possible range of areas the explosive could be located in seemed to grow larger. Now in fact, it seemed to grow a pixel or two with every step she took.
"Great." She muttered crabbily. "Just to make life even easier."
After around ten minutes of walking, Raven finally approached the edge of the bomb's designated search area. Sighing, she began to look around. She couldn't really see anything out of the ordinary, not that she was really down here enough to know what ordinary was. That, coupled with the fact that she really had no idea what one of these bombs was supposed to look like, made Raven realize that unless she hit a stroke of luck, she might be looking around for quite a while.
Right she was too. Half an hour later, Raven had only managed to search what appeared to be around a quarter of the area. If she didn't come across something soon, she may need to resort to bigger measures to accomplish the task, maybe even use her powers. She was stiffly reluctant to do so, seeing as the way her powers had been working lately, they were more likely to set off the bomb than locate it. If something didn't happen soon though, she may have been forced to.
Seemingly out of the blue, Raven's communicator started making a steady beeping noise. It was different from the sound it usually made to signal an incoming communication, and didn't seem to be going away, despite any buttons Raven pressed. As she continued walking, the time between each 'beep' seemed to decrease, and the noises became more persistent. Raven stopped and moved backward; the beeping slowed down a bit. She walked forward; it sped up again. Raven smiled inwardly at the prospect of this feature. Now that she was close enough to the bomb that the tracker in her communicator made noise to indicate its proximity, perhaps she would be able to speed the process up a bit.
Coming to an intersection of tunnels, Raven walked straight through. Once she passed the tunnel on her right though, the beeping sound's speed began to ebb down. When it sped up again once she returned to the intersection, she turned to her right and took that path instead.
After walking straight down that tunnel for a good ways, her communicator began beeping so fast that the sound had practically become a constant tone.
"Okay, I get it." She groaned to the item. "It's in here. So stop making that noise."
Lifting the communicator up, she pressed the button that would allow her to alert Cyborg to her whereabouts.
"Cyborg, I'm sending you my location now. I think you should get over here as soon as—"
A laser shot Raven's hand, shattering the communicator and knocking its remains across the room.
"Ow!" she shouted in pain. Reflexively, Raven dropped the flashlight from her other hand and used it to assuage the burn. "What the…?" she whispered.
Upon regaining her composure, Raven picked up the flashlight and shone it ahead of her. There were hundreds of Slade bots standing out in front of her, all poised to attack…
Cyborg lifted his communicator up to investigate the steady beeping sound now coming from it. The graphics on the screen indicated that he was getting fairly close to an area containing one of the explosives. Apparently, the upgrade he had provided in the Titans' communicators also sported an audio feature that he hadn't been aware of.
"Well, good." Cyborg thought out loud. "Means I'm gettin' closer."
Cyborg used the newfound sound feature in his communicator to locate the nearest bomb. Along the way, he occasionally had had to stop and test a few directions to make sure he was headed in the right place, but eventually wound up in fairly good proximity to his destination. The beeping sound had practically become constant. While actually trying to find the explosive within the room, Cyborg shut off the volume on his communicator in order to tune out the nearly constant (and thus, now useless) beeping noise.
After a few minutes of searching around the immediate area with his built in light source, Cyborg finally came across an object giving off the signature of a cyclonite explosive. He got down on his hands and knees to inspect it. It was a small black cube, around the size of a cereal box.
"Oh, man," Cyborg uttered in shock, realizing where he'd seen it before. "Then that means the bombs are from…"
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven shouted, thrusting a beam of her powers out toward the oncoming Slade bots. Her attack went straight through the thick of them, but still only knocked out a small portion. There were just that many.
Realizing that she was going to need quick use of both her hands, Raven sat the flashlight on the ground and hoped that it, and the dim lighting already present in the sewer would be enough to allow her get through the fight without getting completely demolished.
As the small army of robots began catching up to her, Raven used another beam of her powers to eliminate as many as possible. Finally, as they leapt upon her, she threw up barrier over herself, shielding them away. She thrust her arms out, dispelling the shield and casting the robots on top of it out away from her. With one last wave of energy, Raven defeated what amount she could and prepared to go hand to hand.
One Slade bot ran at her and threw a punch straight for her face. Producing a small black shield with her hand, she blocked it and forcefully kicked her adversary to the side. As quick as it came, another robot followed by attacking her from behind. Raven moved out of the way and tossed it to the ground. Again though, without a second's rest, two more came to take its place. With both the oncoming attackers having punches prepared, Raven merely ducked and let the robots' attacks take each other out.
Another group of them was then running straight at her, this time composed of around three or four robots. Raven prepared small projectiles from her hands and thrust them at the group. As they fell to the ground, defeated, one Slade bot struck her from behind and knocked her body to the floor. She attempted to raise her hand to send an attack at the opponent before sustaining serious injuries, but the robot quickly kicked her in the side before she had the chance.
With Raven currently knocked onto the ground, and in serious pain, ten or so robots rushed up to take advantage of the situation. She prepared more projectiles from her hands and shot them to take out her enemies before they got too close. At the last second though, her powers stopped working, and she only managed to knock away one of the attackers. That still left a large group heading straight at her. They all leapt into the air and tackled her semi-broken from even harder into the ground, rapidly knocking the wind from her torso.
For a few seconds, there was no movement from underneath the pile of Slade bots. Then, almost as if from nowhere, a great burst of black energy burst forth from the group, sending the now defeated Slade bots sprawling across the room. Immediately, ten others came to take their place. Raven managed to block most of their attacks, but was still getting struck occasionally. She realized that, unless she did something soon, she was going to be backed into the wall by the group, and would wind up painfully defeated.
Dropping down, Raven used her lower leg to kick out the shins of the attacking robots. She severely bruised her leg in doing so, but had at least managed to obtain a few moments of safety. Rapidly looking around in the dark to see how many of her enemies were left, Raven failed to see the one robot run up to her side and strike her in the abdomen. As she keeled over in pain, the same robot took the opportunity to punch her in the face. As Raven reeled back, she let out another wave of her powers to destroy how many ever she could manage. Again though, her powers seemed to fail her, and only caused minimal damage.
"Damnit! What's wrong now!" Raven yelled, cursing her powers for failing out at such a moment.
Within seconds, another wave of attackers was upon her, kicking and punching faster than she could manage. Raven was struck and battered all over, reeling with each blow. As she continued to skirt away from the barrage of injuries, she found herself backed into yet another group of robots. Finally, it was too much to handle; their sheer numbers had caught up to her. Time after time, Raven attempted to make a shield out of her powers to block the Slade bots' various fists and kicks, and time after time, her powers chose not to respond.
As Raven began to lose consciousness from the blows she was receiving, she faintly noticed another source of light approaching from a distance…
Robin stepped over one of many mounds of rocks, holding a flashlight up in one hand and his communicator in the other, just in case. He and Starfire had decided that they would be the ones to part from the others and search this area for Slade or some sort of hideout. Soon after beginning their search, the two had decided to split up in order to cover more ground. Hopefully, they could find Slade and stop the explosives from detonating before the others had to worry about it.
It seemed to Robin that he had been searching for nearly hours. And seeing as Starfire hadn't contacted him yet, she most likely hadn't found anything either. If he didn't pick up the pace and come up with something soon, it could mean the city's destruction.
After another half hour or so of Robin walking aimlessly underground, he noticed a small speck of light some distance away. As he approached it and its image became clearer, he noticed that it was a tunnel of sorts; perhaps what he had been looking for. He sprinted ahead quickly, in hopes of finally finding something worth his time. The teenager dashed through the large opening, and at first, had to squint his eyes to adjust to the newfound brightness of the great room. When he could finally see again, he opened his eyes and saw, though with some surprise, just what he had been looking for.
Before Robin stood an enormously gargantuan wall of computers, controls, and other devices. It was almost and amazing sight. How in the world Slade had managed to find this new place, and fill it up with so much advanced, working technology was truly dumfounding, to say the least. However, Robin didn't waste time gawking at Slade's adaptive abilities; he had a job to do.
Robin rushed over to the set of computers and gazed at all the controls on them, looking for some sort of clue as to how to stop the bombs from going off. Unfortunately, he knew how to work the computer at Titans' Tower, and had at least a fairly good knowledge of how to work with other machines, but Cyborg was the real computer expert. All the gizmos and gadgets in Slade's hideout were a bit above his own knowledge.
"Come on!" Robin growled. "There's gotta be something here!"
"You're never going to stop them doing that Robin." Slade's voice spoke calmly from the doorway. Robin turned around to face the devious villain. Held up in Slade's right hand was a small device with a beaming, red button on it. Already knowing full well what the device was, Robin merely stared at Slade pondering his options. The two continued this 'staring contest' of sorts, a mental power struggle waging between them. Finally, Robin spoke.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" he asked. "You caught me."
"Why, whatever do you mean Robin?" Slade said menacingly.
"The bombs!" yelled Robin. "What are you waiting for? You've caught me, why aren't you setting them off?"
"Now why would I do that, Robin?" he asked. "You can just surrender the city, and we won't have to resort to anything drastic."
"I'm not the one doing something drastic here, Slade. You are!"
"Really now? Am I?" Slade asked. "You're the one who's down here, risking the lives of thousands of people just so you can prove something. You could have merely surrendered from the beginning and spared the lives of the people in the city, but instead you chose to risk them all and come down here, just because you're too proud to admit I've got you beat."
"That's not what's happening at all." Robin spoke through gritted teeth. "I'm trying to protect the city from the likes of you, not put it in danger."
"Well, you've certainly done a wonderful job, coming down here and pissing me off." Slade told him. "Since you coming down here wasn't part of our little deal, I could just push the button right now. The entire city, along with your friends who are still in it, would be blown to smithereens, but at least the two of us would be okay."
"You wouldn't!" Robin shouted.
"Oh, wouldn't I?" Slade said, slowly lowering his finger on the button.
"No!" Robin shouted, suddenly dashing at the crazed villain in a mad attempt at stopping him. He was just feet away from Slade when…
'click'…
Robin froze.
The button was pressed.
"Whoops." Slade whispered, almost gleefully, the mocking sarcasm just dripping off his voice. "You know Robin, I think you should really reconsider your policy of negotiating with, what was it you called me? A madman? A terrorist?"
"No" Robin whispered, absolute horror engulfing his body. "You bastard!"
The fear taking over Robin's body suddenly turned into rage as the boy flung himself at Slade. Both fists ready, he threw punch after punch at the villain. Slade countered by blocking each of Robin's punches with his own fists. The two continued exchanging their own flurries of punches at each other, almost fighting in a dance-like fashion; one moving in sync with the other, each move correlating. Finally, Robin gathered all the force he could muster and threw his fist at Slade. Not even skipping a beat, Slade raised his gloved hand and caught the boy's punch.
"Still not good enough Robin." He mocked. Slade then raised his leg and kneed Robin right in the stomach, sending him sprawling across the room.
As Robin lay on the floor in pain, Slade prepared his staff and ran at the teen's fallen figure, hoping to either continue the fight, or beat the life out of him. Robin, seeing this tactic, raised his own bo staff just in time to block Slade's.
Slowly, Robin rose off the floor, pushing against Slade's force. He then broke the power struggle between the villain and him by pushing his staff forward and thrusting Slade off of him. He swung his bo staff at his enemy's body, only to have his attack blocked. Again, Slade used the same tactic, and gained a similar effect. The two continued swinging and blocking at each other for a time, never pausing at all, lest their adversary gain the upper hand.
Finally, drenched in sweat and nearly exhausted, Robin faltered for a split second. This small point in time was enough for Slade to swing at his tired body and knock him over once again. Robin fell onto the floor, still clenching tightly to his bo staff. Standing over him, almost toweringly, Slade raised his own weapon and brought it down on Robin. Just in time, the boy wonder raised the metal bar to block Slade's. Slade responded by bringing his weapon down on the teenager, again and again. Each time, Robin blocked it, and each time he was pushed back a bit.
After ten or so of these attacks, Robin found himself backed up against Slade's giant computer system. Seeing that Slade was about to bring his weapon down one more time, Robin rolled out the way, completely dodging. Slade's staff instead crashed forcefully into the computer system. Parts flew everywhere, and sparks arose near the struck area. Robin smiled at the villain's miscalculation.
"What, you think that's some sort of victory?" Slade asked angrily. "It's nothing compared to what I'm going to do to you!"
Slade drove his staff as hard as possible at Robin. The boy used his skills to once again block the attack. Robin swung at Slade. The dark man dodged out of the way and tried to bring his staff down on Robin's head. He raised his own staff, and found himself yet again engaged in a struggle against Slade. This time though, he didn't merely hold his ground; Robin, with unexpected force, pushed back. Slade's weapon was knocked from his hand, and Robin quickly kneed him in the stomach.
"Hmmm, that was almost impressive." Slade calmly spoke. "Unless of course, you were actually trying to hurt me."
Robin charge at Slade, bo staff ready to end the fight once and for all. Out of nowhere, with almost inhuman strength, Slade raised his hand and caught Robin's staff in it, not even faltering for a moment. Then, in a second display, Slade twisted his wrist a bit, and snapped Robin's weapon in two. The pieces of metal fell to the floor with dual clangs, and the two found themselves once again, engaged in hand to hand combat.
The two continually exchanged a barrage of punches at each other. Having had enough of this, Slade maneuvered himself behind Robin, and with one swift movement of his arm, knocked the bewildered boy to the floor. With Robin on the ground, Slade ran to retrieve his lost staff from the other side of the room. Noticing this, Robin reached for one of the stubs left from his own destroyed weapon. By the time he had it in his possession, Slade was already running at him, staff in hand. Robin raised the small piece of metal in front of him, and blocked Slade's oncoming swing. Though this tactic did manage to slow Slade down a bit, his swing had so much force in it that it eventually broke right through what was left of Robin's broken staff. Now, he had no weapon whatsoever.
Slade pounded his staff into Robin's chest, knocking him back. Slade ran at him and swung again and again, each time severely bruising whichever part of Robin he struck. Finally, Slade lowered the arm with his staff in it and walked over to Robin's battered, barely standing form. With one move, Slade's fist swiftly connected with Robin's face, and the boy fell over onto the floor. He made little attempt to rise.
"Oh, and I was just starting to enjoy myself." Slade said dangerously. He raised his staff above his head, preparing to bring it down on Robin once and for all.
"Well, Robin, the city is about to be destroyed, and so are you." Slade said. "Any last words?"
Author's Note: Okay, so there you have it. Thanks again for sending so many reviews. You all rock! If there's anybody out there that knows better, I'm sorry if anything I wrote here was overly scientifically inaccurate (I'm sure something was). Anyway, have a great spring break. (If you're on one right now that is). :)
Til' next time. GoldenBlade416
