Oohh boy, if you thought I went into nerdy detail on the last chapter...you ain't see nuthin' yet. BTW, this is based off the the Matrix trilogy. If you haven't seen them yet, at least see the first one!
"Welcome to Z-MAX 103.5! You're talking to the J-Man, Johnny Thunder! Now who am I speaking with?"
"Omhygawd, am I on the air? Am I on the air?"
"Yes you are, lil' lady. This is the J-Man, Johnny Thunder! Now who I am speaking with?"
"OH GAWWDDDD! YESSS! Ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, ok...umm...my name is Joy."
"Ok Joy! So for the chance to win a mask autographed by ROBIN himself, tell me...what is Robin's favorite color?"
"Ok, ok, ok, ok...I know this...I know this...is it...green?"
"Congratulations! You win the mask!"
What followed was such a intense, ear piercing screech of what Robin could only assume was Joy being happy. It was so loud that the Boy Wonder had to take his headphones off so he wouldn't wind up deaf.
"Go ahead and say something." the J-Man, Johnny Thunder whispered to Robin, with his hand over the microphone. Robin's facial expression twisted and contorted like that of a man who was forced to swallow a large gulp of sour milk.
"Uh, congratulations...Joy, was it?"
"OHMYGAWD HE TALKED TO ME! Robin! I wanna rip off your costume and..."
"Ok, I think that's enough for now..." said the J-Man, Johnny Thunder. "Just a quick word from our sponsors and we'll be back with another non-stop 30 minutes of Jump City's HOTTEST ROCK!"
With a flip of the switch Joy was disconnected, and the latest modern rock song was blaring on the radio. The J-Man, Johnny Thunder took off his headphones and just shook his head.
"Sorry about that, dawg. Had no clue we'd get a live one."
"You get used to it." Robin said with a sigh. "Well, if you don't have anything else, I think I'll be going."
Robin had been asked to be the guest opener for the band new S-Mart ("Shop smart, shop S-Mart" a banner said) and a local radio station had been there to promote it. Part of the event was the random drawing for an autographed 'crime busting worn mask' that Robin had autographed in silver ink. And Joy had won it.
"Sure thing, dawg! Thanks for everything!" the J-Man, Johnny Thunder said.
Robin gave a slight nod, happy for the whole thing to be over. Right about now, he'd love nothing more than to be with Starfire, his Tammaranian princess. Once outside the store, Robin slid on his helmet and climbed up on the R-Cycle. He made sure his gloves were on tight enough before he attempted to fire it up. He was ready to get back to the Titans Tower ASAP.
Only nothing happened.
Again, Robin tried to rev it but nothing happened. The R-Cycle was dead.
Sighing heavily to himself, Robin reached to his belt to pull his communicator from it's resting place in a little pouch. The Boy Wonder flipped open the screen and hit PAGE ALL, hoping maybe Cyborg could pick him up in the T-Car. But oddly enough, no Titans replied...matter of fact, nobody replied.
The only response Robin kept getting over and over again was...
01001100 01001111 01001100
"Binary?" he asked out loud to no one in particular. "Why am I getting binary?"
And as if fate had a cruel sense of humor that day, Robin felt a drop of water on his head. Then another. Then another and another and another. Before he knew it, it was pouring down rain in a torrential monsoon in Jump City, soaking him down to his bones.
"Fine way to end a day..." he grumbled to himself, throwing his cape over his head. He began his long walk back to the Tower, hoping that he might pass a taxi or two, but the streets were oddly empty tonight. There were no cars, no people, no nothing. Even weirder was the fact that the rain clouds were so dark that the street lights had turned on, casting everything in a greenish tint glow.
With his uniform feeling like it weighed fifty pounds Robin continued to trudge down the sidewalk, cursing to himself over his misfortune this evening. He squinted his eyes through his mask trying to look through the rain soaked horizon to see how far the Tower was in the distance.
"Mr. Robin..." came a voice cutting through the darkness. Every word was perfectly pronounced, yet devoid of any emotion, yet not exactly monotone either. It sounded artificial, fake, synthetic. Like something a computer program might say.
"Who's there?" Robin asked defiantly, assuming a martial arts position with his educated feet ready to strike at the drop of a hat.
"Mr. Robin, it's a pleasure to finally meet you."
Out from the shadows came Control Freak, but his physical appearance had changed again. Instead of his dirty trench coat and oily, stringy hair he had on a simple, black business suit, with a white button up shirt underneath and a thin, plain, black tie.
His hair had been cut and groomed to a short, perfect hair cut with not a single hair out of place. Resting on his face were a pair of dark sunglasses, with a angular, jagged edges to them. His face was expressionless, his demeanor calm and cool.
"Control Freak! How many times do we have to beat you before you learn your lesson?"
"The name is Agent Freak and I beg to disagree, Mr. Robin. You see, I have learned my lesson. I have found, if you will, my purpose in life." he said. Even in the dark of night, Robin could see his reflection in Agent Freak's sunglasses.
"Your purpose, huh? And what's that? Keeping the Ramen industry alive and well? I should knock those sunglasses right off your face." Robin said. The tiniest of tiny smiles creaked itself on the corner of Agent Freak's mouth.
"Still using all the muscles except the one that matters?" he said in response. "Mr. Robin, whether you realize it or not, we now have a purpose, all thanks to you."
"We?" Robin asked curiously.
"We." said Agent Freak, though his lips never moved. As a matter of fact, he never said it all. From the shadows emerged another Agent Freak, dressed and looking exactly the same as the first one.
"We, Mr. Robin." it said. "We are here because of you. Because of our purpose."
"It is purpose that created us." said another Agent Freak, this one crawling out from a dumpster.
"Purpose that connects us." said one more Agent Freak as he made his way out of a nearby sewer manhole.
"Purpose that pulls us" came one more Agent Freak, this one appearing from inside of a nearby video store.
"That guides us." added another Agent Freak clone, this one climbing down a telephone pole.
"That drives us." said another.
"It is purpose that defines us." came from another clone.
"Purpose that binds us."
"We are here because of you, Mr. Robin. We're here to take from you what we so rightfully deserve. Starfire. She is our purpose."
Immediately the main Agent Freak swung his first towards Robin's face with a surprising speed that almost caught the Boy Wonder off guard. Almost.
Robin dodged the punch, feeling the fist miss him by less than an inch. Countering the move, Robin unleashed a fierce roundhouse kick that connected square on the side of Agent Freak's head, sending the nerdy villain flying into a group of three or so clones, taking all four of them out.
The other Agent Freaks responded by closing in on Robin, attempting to dog pile him to the ground. Robin effortlessly back flipped on to a nearby dumpster and quickly armed himself with his bo-staff.
"It ends tonight!" Robin hissed through grit teeth, trying to sort out his line of vision through the torrential rain. With a loud "HIIRAAAHHHH!" he propelled himself into the air with his legs and swung the bo-staff in a 360 degree angle, connecting with a large group of Agent Freaks.
Bodies flew everywhere as the bo-staff cracked against the skulls of the Agent Freak clones, yet more and more kept coming.
"GET HIM!" one of the clones shouted and soon more clones begin to file in from various doors and openings.
Robin flung himself into a one-handed hand-stand and in mid-air heaved the bo-staff towards more Agent Freaks, the Boy Wonder indiscriminately aiming at whichever clone was closest. For every clone Robin smashed, kicked, or demolished, three more Agent Freaks would show up in it's place.
By now Robin's patience was wearing thin. Drenched and furious, he reached to his utility belt and flung three freeze discs towards the largest cluster of Agent Freaks. Each one exploded in mid-air sending down a wave of solid ice that froze the clones in mid-position.
"Needing to resort to a crutch, Mr. Robin?" one of the Control Freak's taunted.
"If you're doing all of this just because you need a girlfriend, then you're sicker than I thought."
"I so totally have a girlfriend!" Contol Freak said, dropping his monotone voice for his normal nerdy wail.
"Oh yeah?" Robin said with a smirk. "What's her name?"
"It's...it's...her name is...Mary Sue! Either way it doesn't matter, because Starfire is totally hotter and once we kick your sorry butt she'll be OUR girlfriend!"
"Not in your life time."
"AAAAAAAARRGGGH! GET HIM! GET HIM! GET HIM! GET HIM!"
A solid wall of Agent Freaks charged at the Boy Wonder. Robin grit his teeth in determination, buckled down and armed his bo-staff. He readied himself to strike when a shower of emerald green star bolts rained down from the heavens, cutting off the advancing army of nerds.
"Robin! It is most glorious to see you!"
It was Starfire! The crimson haired beauty flew down like a bullet towards Robin, hugging him as tightly as she could, nearly crushing the Boy Wonder.
"Star...air..."
"Apologies, my love." she said with an embarrassed smile and gently let go of her masked beau. The Agent Freak clones had stopped the charge in mid-rush and just stood on, vacantly staring at the soaking wet Tammaranian. Starfire, for her part, didn't notice the leering stares at first.
"I became concerned when you had not yet returned to the Tower, so I ventured out in hopes of retrieving you." she said with a smile, brushing a soggy clump of crimson hair away from her face.
Robin nodded, smiling for the first time that day.
"It's nice to see you, Starfire, but we're going to have to cut this a bit short, I'm afraid. We've got problems...a lot of problems."
Starfire tore her gaze away from Robin to finally let it sink in that they were surrounded by waves and waves of Agent Freaks...all of them staring at the soaking wet alien princess.
"Whoa...you can so see her grebnacks..." one Agent Freak whispered to another, both of them giggling like little school children.
Starfire clenched both her petite hands into fists, balling up huge star bolts, her eyes flashing a brilliant shade of emerald.
"Do not stare at my grebnacks!" she shouted and punctuated the thought by hurling a barrage of star bolts sending Agent Freak bodies flying everywhere.
The remaining Agent Freaks charged at the two Titans, the army of nerds wanting to take down Robin for good and claim the Tammaranian beauty for their own, but neither Titan was going down without a fight. Robin answered their charge by planting his bo-staff firmly in the ground and spinning around on it and, using his momentum to carry him, aimed his weighted feet, connecting with each Agent Freak on his way around the pole.
Starfire had resorted to a more 'hands-on approach', grabbing a nearby Agent Freak with her hands and chucking him into a group of stunned on-looking clones. She finished off this attack with more star bolts to break up a cluster of clones.
"Robin, there are too many of the Control Freaks!" she squealed, ripping a nearby street light up from the ground and swinging it like a baseball bat. She managed to connect with five or so Agent Freaks, each one flying off into the distance till they smacked off the nearby WAYNE TECH skyscraper.
"Then let's finish this now, Ms. Koriand'r." said the main Agent Freak, as he stepped out in the middle of the rain soaked street. "One last battle between you and I. If I win, you shall be my bride, Ms. Koriand'r. But if you win, I shall let you and your 'boyfriend' go."
Before Starfire could answer, Robin placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"Star..." he said softly. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to. We can still take them head on."
Starfire smiled softly before leaning closer to him in the rain and gently kissing him on the lips.
"I will be well." she said reassuringly, before stepping on the opposite side of the street from Agent Freak. Robin stood behind her, staring on in the drenched night air. Both sides of the streets were now lined shoulder to shoulder with the remaining clones.
"Let us begin!" she shouted. Agent Freak charged through the sheets of ice cold rain, hoping that the Tammaranian beauty would be impressed with his display of strength. The two ran at each other with intense speed and pace, Starfire's eyes illuminating a solid shade of emerald. Due to her height advantage, Starfire swung her fist first, the likes of which connected with Agent Freak sending him into the concrete so hard he created a small crater.
"Stay down!" she ordered. "For I do not wish to harm you anymore."
Agent Freak literally flew staid in the crater for a moment or two, a small puddle of rain starting to form in the base of it. With a loud 'WOOSH', Agent Freak literally flew up from the crater, his sunglasses finally knocked off his face. His suit was soaked and muddy, his face livid with anger. He was now hovering about ten or so feet off the ground. Lightning flashed in the sky, adding a sinister edge to the glooming Agent Freak.
"Ms. Koriand'r! Your time with Robin has ended! Surrender now and make it easy on yourself."
Starfire cursed loudly in her native tongue and flew at him with all the speed she could muster. Agent Freak dodged her at just the right moment and flew straight up, taller than the tallest skyscraper in Jump City. Starfire followed after him, chasing the super nerd high into the air. When both of them had reached the apex of their ascent, there was a stare down, neither one taking their eyes off the other.
"I fail to see why you simply cannot have the feelings of love for somebody else. I am sure there are plenty of other seas for the fish."
"It goes deeper than that, Ms. Koriand'r!" Agent Freak snarled. "My whole life has been one big joke...I am easily the greatest of all villains and yet I am neglected, forgotten among the likes of such wannabes as Trigon, The Brain or even Slade. I mean, did you see 'Hellboy'? It wasn't even that good, yet people still take Slade as a credible villain!"
None of this made any sense the alien princess, who just stared back, dumbfounded at his rant.
"Perhaps you are taking this the wrong way?" she asked sweetly. "Maybe the life of a super villain is not for you?"
Agent Freak's angry scowl softened into something more sincere.
"You know...maybe...maybe you're right..." he said sullenly. "Maybe...maybe there's more to life than fan-subbed anime...and role-playing...and Pocky...and fan fiction..."
Starfire beamed brightly.
"Oh how glorious!" she said cheerfully. "Now, perhaps you shall remove your clones and allow Robin and I to return home?"
Agent Freak's long face instantly snapped back to a wicked sneer.
"Ha, if you're stupid enough to believe that, then you probably think Greedo shot first! GET 'EM BOYS!"
The remaining army of Agent Freaks swarmed Robin, hundreds of the clones attacking at once, overwhelming the Boy Wonder.
"Star...fire! Help!" he shouted, trying to fend off the invasion as much as possible. Starfire looked on in horror as her boyfriend was fighting a losing battle, the odds just too great against him.
"Robin!" she shouted, ready to fly into victory for his aid. She was, however, till she felt two arms wrap around her in a large hug.
"Gimmie a kiss and I might let him go..." Control Freak oozed.
Trembling with anger, Starfire grabbed Agent Freak by the sleeve of his shirt and spun him around several times, like she was winding up for the hammer toss in the Olympics. Then, with a mighty heave, she hurled him towards the ground with such force that it created a crater about half the size of a football field.
What followed was an eerie silence, as all parties stared at the massive crater, nervously waiting what was to happen next. At first, nothing happened with the only sound coming from the hard rain which had yet to cease. Then slowly, softly at first, came a rumbling. It picked up intensity till the whole ground was shaking. Finally, after a minute or so, the main Agent Freak burst through the concrete like an angry phoenix in a super-nova of rage.
"THIS IS MY WORLD!" he declared with fury. "MY! WORLD! AND I WILL SHOW YOU WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE WHO DISOBEY ME!
Instantly, there was a blinding flash of light and the world around them seemed to fade away...
"My, what a glorious sky." Starfire thought. It was first thing that came into her mind as soon as her pretty emerald eyes opened. The sky was a deep blue, bluer than Raven's cloak and not a cloud in the sky. The temperature was perfect, in the sense it wasn't too warm or too cold. Just perfect. A flock of doves flew by, gently fluttering past some cherry blossoms which were in full bloom.
Sitting up, the crimson haired beauty shook off the mental cob-webs in her head and glanced around her surroundings. A gentle stream was in front of her, with a simple wooden bridge which arched across. Various pagodas, shrines and temples littered the landscape.
The alien princess sat up and for the first time noticed her odd manner of dress. Gone was the traditional Tammaranian casual wear, but rather she was wearing a solid yellow jump suit, with a black stripe on either side.
"Uggh...what...happened?"
It was Robin's voice. The Boy Wonder woke up next to Starfire and found like her, his uniform had changed. His typical tights, cape and shirt were missing, the outfit having been replaced by a pair of black 'karate pants', which while baggy in nature felt very comfortable, along with some black martial arts training slippers. He was bare chested, which Starfire found most pleasing.
"Robin, why are we in such an odd manner of dress?"
"I'll tell you why..." came Control Freak's voice, once again going for the dramatic entrance. His outfit had changed yet again, this time resembling something out of a 70's martial arts movie. A flowing, detailed robe with the image of a dragon embossed in the front in gold fabric. His hair had changed to pure white, with a long, snow white matching beard and mustache.
"The name is Pai Freak, martial arts master! And today is the day you die!"