One chapter left after this!
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I would probably not be doing this if I did.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 15: When All Else Failed…
The sun rose steadily once again, throwing its light upon the still landscape. The brightness illuminated the trees and cast long shadows throughout the forest. Underneath one of these trees, with her head against the trunk, lay a dark-cloaked mage. She was still; her only movement being the steady rise and fall of her chest as she slept. Her head rested on a small pillow while the rest of her was covered by a light blue sleeping bag. Only a few feet away was a dark green sleeping bag, only this one was empty. Only a minute later, a green hawk flew down and landed next to her. The green hawk quickly grew and mutated into a human Beast Boy.
He could see Raven underneath her sleeping bag, but couldn't tell whether she was asleep or not. The ground had been a little uncomfortable, but the two of them had decided sleeping in the forest was safer than sleeping in a house, especially after what happened to them last time. At least the aliens tended to stay close to populated areas, so there were less chances of them running into them in the woods.
The grass was rather cool and damp, as it usually was in the morning. He had gotten up and flew around briefly to make sure the coast was clear. While he was in the air he noticed dark clouds toward the east, as if it were about to rain. Thankfully, it was headed away from them. This was actually one of Beast Boy's favorite times of day; he was just too lazy to get up early enough to experience it most of the time. He grunted once he remembered they had more traveling ahead of them today. His mind briefly recalled what happened yesterday. After a rather dramatic encounter with a tripod they had finally set out to find traces of people, and hopefully their friends.
No such luck. They had gone a long way before coming across another abandoned suburb. There they had luckily found a map and some other useful things, but the nearest city wasn't around for many miles and would take a while to reach, whether on foot or by air. They really were in the middle of nowhere and it would take a while to get to civilization. They had decided that traveling on foot was a little safer, since there was a less chance of them being spotted. Now no longer surrounded by tripods, Raven decided it was safe to expend some of her powers to heal the large gash on her head. And with that gone, that was one less thing to worry about.
Beast Boy stretched briefly and yawned. He turned to look at his companion and found that she was indeed still asleep. Briefly Beast Boy debated whether to get her up or not. She did say she wanted to get an early start, but at the same time she just looked so peaceful! He couldn't help but stare at her. She looked so content, yet so small and frail. One could easily mistake her for a normal teenage girl (aside from the violet hair) instead of the powerful mage she really was.
Beast Boy finally decided to just give her a few more minutes and take the opportunity to get some breakfast for them. The first thing that came to him was a nice tofu sandwich, but unfortunately, he didn't have any and he knew Raven wouldn't be very enthusiastic about it anyway. He scrounged around one of their packs, looking to see what they had. A slight groan escaped him when he remembered what they had gotten. Pretty much everything they had picked up was something that would stay fresh and didn't require any cooking, so everything in there was pretty much limited to fruit bars, energy bars, dried fruits, cereal (without milk of course), peanut butter, etc. His ears perked up when he heard a soft groan come from behind. He guessed it could only mean Raven was coming to.
Raven shifted around, now awake, but a crumpled-up wrapper hitting her square on the forehead was what made her open her eyes. Her eyelids snapped open, and she looked up to see a cheerful-looking Beast Boy sitting down a few feet away from her, munching on a fruit bar.
"Morning sleeping beauty!" he said with his usual wide grin, fang poking out. The wrapper he had thrown flew back in his face before he had a chance to dodge.
"Morning," Raven grunted lazily and turned over. As soon as she did Beast Boy leapt over so she was facing him again.
"May I get ze luvely lady zomething to eat?" he asked in his cheesy French accent.
"Ngh."
"I'll take that as a yes, then!" he bounded over to one of their packs. "Observe! We have tasty jarred and wrapped foods of all kinds, eagerly awaiting you! Perhaps a pop-tart would satisfy your cravings! Or maybe a mouth-watering power bar will suit your desire!"
Ignoring him for the moment, Raven sat up and rubbed her eyes. "What time is it?"
"Uh, about 8:35, at least according to this watch I picked up yesterday," he replied. His usual clock was as good as fried after being exposed to the EMP blast back in Jump City. "So, you want something to eat?" he asked again, this time in a more serious voice as he drank from a juice box.
"Sure, I guess," she replied. Raven shook the sleep out of her eyes and got to her feet. It was indeed still early; the sun was still low and the shadows long. Today they had a lot of traveling to do, though Raven couldn't say she looked forward to it. Pushing those thoughts out of her head momentarily, she knelt down next to Beast Boy and gratefully took an energy bar from him.
"Not much, I know. But I'm afraid there probably isn't a breakfast buffet around for miles, especially one that isn't torched," he told her with a very dry humor in his voice. A moment passed.
"So, where are we off to again, Raven?" Beast Boy asked her.
"Wherever we can get help or find people to help."
"What about the others?" he asked her. "Are we still looking for them?"
The empath sighed and paused. "As much as I don't want to admit it, maybe we should stop looking for them. Especially with our communicators gone, our chances of finding them are practically nothing."
Beast Boy lowered his gaze and let out a long sigh of his own. "I guess you're right." He missed his friends just as much as she did. It had only been a few days, but it felt like years since he'd seen them. Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire – he could only wonder what they were doing now. Even still though, he found out that he had really enjoyed Raven's company. Just spending time with her alone, without her wanting to kill him, was special.
After eating and gathering everything up, the two of them set out. They decided to head north through the woods until they came to the highway, which they would follow to the nearest city. The two of them walked side-by-side for a while, not really saying anything. Only a few minutes into their journey, Raven stopped dead in her tracks.
"Raven, is something wrong?" he asked with concern. She merely stared straight ahead, looking as though she could hear something he couldn't.
"It's different," she replied softly.
The changeling looked perplexed. "Huh? Different? What's different?"
"Everything."
Question marks now appeared over Beast Boy's head. "Wait, what are you talking about? I don't understand!"
Raven now snapped out of her trance and turned to him. "It's really hard to describe, okay? I don't know how to say this." Beast Boy was no empath after all, so he figured it probably would be hard for her to describe it to him.
Raven tried, nevertheless, not wanting to keep him confused. "It's almost like…" she paused. "Someone's just pressed 'play' on the world. Like everything's just woken up from a deep sleep." Beast Boy still looked confused. "Look," she said rolling her eyes. "Just stop and look around, you'll see what I mean."
Beast Boy shrugged and did as he was told. Surely enough, things did feel sort of…different. He remembered a few days ago thinking how it felt as though someone had just pressed 'pause' on the world, now it felt like it was in motion again. It was the same feeling one got when a violent storm just passed. He looked around. Everything seemed brighter now, more colorful, more lively. There was no haze. Even the sun seemed to shine brighter. There were no clouds anymore, which he had noticed, but never took the time to think about until now. His ears perked up upon hearing a sound he hadn't heard in a while…
"Birds," he said softly. Raven nodded, understanding what he meant. The birds were chirping again.
"Yeah." Everything really did feel different.
"What do you think it means?" he asked her.
The mage shrugged. "I don't know." She looked around again to take in their surroundings. A warm feeling suddenly filled both of them, like the feeling one gets when one sees a sunrise after a long night, or when one steps in front of a warm fire after being out in the cold. The two of them merely stood there and stared at one another, a small smile slowly playing on both their faces.
"Let's keep going," Raven said after a minute.
Beast Boy nodded. "Yeah."
They walked on a while longer, both of thinking about what they had just felt. Raven walked just a little slower and fell behind a little. As usual, Beast Boy was the first to break the silence. With nothing else left to do, he went into one of his joke stories, trying to brighten the mood just a little more. As with most of his jokes, Raven was far from impressed, but smiled inwardly at his attempts. That was the thing about Beast Boy – he was funny when he wasn't trying to be.
The shape-shifter was unphased as he went on. He turned around so he was facing Raven and walking backwards.
"So then," he went on. "The preacher says to the rabbi, well I went to convert the bear in the woods, so I-AAUGH!" His sentence was cut off as he tripped over something and landed hard on his back.
"Beast Boy, are you…" Raven began, but paused when she saw what he tripped over.
Beast Boy grabbed his head and slowly got up. "Alright, who put what there for me to trip on-" he looked down to see what he had stumbled over and found himself looking at a long, metallic, cylindrical appendage.
The green teen's eyes widened, and he went into a panicked frenzy. "RAVEN! It's a trike – a trippy – a tripe – a TRIPOD!"
He leapt over to her side to as he braced for another fight, but it never came. He looked at it to get a better look at it. It was indeed a tripod's leg; only…it was lying across the ground.
"Huh?…" he began.
Raven's eyes scanned up the tripod's motionless leg until she saw its massive head a good distance away. She could hardly believe her eyes. It wasn't moving at all. It just lay there, sprawled across the ground, lifeless. Beast Boy left her side and ran up to the head, with Raven following close behind. At first they thought it might have been shot down, but its head showed no signs of damage at all. It was like it had just fallen over for no reason. Raven felt out with her powers and felt no live aura coming from inside. The pilots, for whatever reason, were all dead.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, and Slade steadily traversed the empty highway east. Empty, that is, of cars. The four of them had stumbled upon yet another crowd of refugees all hoping to find safety. As they came to the top of a hill, the jutted buildings of a cityscape finally came into view.
"Alright guys," Robin addressed them. "We're going in. Everybody stay close and be careful."
"Listen," Slade spoke. Out in the distance, they could hear footsteps. Tripod footsteps.
"They're here," Cyborg added.
They continued on nevertheless, passing by a billboard filled with pictures of missing people, children, and pets. The four of them got closer and closer to the city, but still they couldn't see any signs of a tripod. To Robin's surprise, he spotted a military truck rolling by with soldiers on it. He at first thought they were going to fight the tripods, but he heard no signs of combat. The four of them decided to go and investigate.
They continued on, buildings slowly rising up around them as they got deeper and deeper, flanked on both sides by scared civilians. It was a sad sight, with broken windows everywhere, smashed walls, and newspaper pages rolled across the street as the wind blew them on. The group of heroes (and villain) came across a statue in the middle of an intersection.
It was obviously some kind of monument or tribute, but the entire thing was overgrown with the red weed. It was a soldier holding a rifle in one hand and a flag in the other. It reminded Robin of pictures of World War II soldiers he had seen in textbooks. The statue stood like an immobile guard, solemnly staring ahead as he stood watch. They passed by it with only a mere glance, but Starfire, who was hovering behind, noticed something peculiar. She flew closer to the statue to get a better look.
"Friends, come over and observe this," she called to them. The other three approached to see what the interruption was about. Starfire pointed at the statue's base, and the others saw what she had just noticed. The red weed had overgrown the entire thing, but near the base it was different. Instead of its normal blood red color, the weed near the bottom was now light gray, almost white. It appeared to have be shriveling up and withering away.
Starfire reached forward, took a piece of the gray vine in her hand, and snapped it off. It broke easily and was dry to the touch. She rubbed and felt it with her fingers, and the thing crumbled into dust almost instantly. "It is dying," she observed.
Cyborg gave a curious "Huh." Robin and Slade merely stared at the thing, puzzled. While she was still holding out her hand, Starfire felt a drop of water land on it. She looked up to see more droplets steadily falling from they sky. It had begun to rain.
"Let's keep going," Robin said after a moment, though still pondering what he had just seen. The rest followed his lead down the street. Up ahead, they noticed another truck surrounded by soldiers waving civilians through the area. The civilians were moving, but all of them were hesitating and kept looking off into the distance at something. From the looks on their faces, Robin figured it was something significant. He thought it might be a tripod, but there were no footsteps.
"Come on people, move along. Don't stop, keep going," one of the soldiers was shouting.
Robin and the others started to make way towards them to see what was going on, but all stopped when they beheld a sight that made them stare in awe.
They saw a tall red brick building, and leaning against it was a lifeless tripod. It wasn't moving at all, it merely laid against the partially smashed building. All their hearts leapt at the sight. They almost couldn't believe what they were seeing was real. The seemingly invincible war machine now lay there, dead.
"Is that…did they…how did…" Cyborg stuttered, too shocked and perplexed to find his words.
"Quick, let's ask what happened," Robin commanded. He dashed off to the group of soldiers, who were still waving the civilians along.
"Hey, excuse me,-" Robin called, trying to get their attention. The shouting soldier momentarily paused to see what he wanted. "Did you guys take that thing out?" he asked eagerly.
The soldier shook his head. "No sir. The thing was walking around in circles, behaving erratically. Then it just fell over by itself about an hour ago." He shifted his attention back to the moving crowd. "Alright everyone, keep going. Move along!"
Robin looked around, bewildered. The other three heard what had happened and looked perplexed as well. First the red weed was dying then a tripod just fell over for no reason. What was going on?
The four of them decided to move on, seeing if they could find where the footsteps had been coming from. They didn't have to look long, though. The footsteps now grew loud, and soon a gigantic Martian war machine emerged from behind a line of buildings.
"There!" Robin pointed. At seeing the colossal machine the crowd of civilians panicked and ran desperately away in different directions, all trying to get away. Amid the confusion, the soldiers regrouped and took cover behind a crumbling wall. One of them pulled out a radio to call for backup. The Titans and Slade followed their example and ducked behind a building to take cover. Robin, however, noticed something peculiar and dashed out into the open and quickly ducked behind a lifeless car to get a better look at the tripod.
"Robin! Please, come back!" Starfire called. She made to go after him, but Robin raised a hand to stop her.
"Stay there!" he shouted. Starfire still made an effort to get to him, but Cyborg held her back. Slade didn't seem to care one way or the other.
Robin turned his attention back to the lumbering machine. His first suspicions were confirmed. It was moving, but not the way it usually did. The machine stumbled forward clumsily. It walked very awkwardly, almost erratically, as if the pilots were having problems controlling it. It didn't even seem to notice the scared, fleeing mass of people beneath it.
Robin's eyes narrowed as he tried to make sense of what was happening. The falling water had picked up, and it was now raining steadily. From where he was, Robin could make out the rain hitting and splattering against the tripod's metallic surface.
Wait a minute…
The rain was falling on the tripod. The rain was hitting the tripod.
Robin's eyes widened in a combination of shock, disbelief, and excitement. "GUYS!" he stood up and called out. The other three turned to hear what he was saying. "There's no shield! No shield!"
VRRRUUUUUUUMMM! The tripod's loud foghorn blast drowned out Robin's speech. The boy wonder still stood there, frantically waving his arms and pointing at the tripod.
"What is he saying?" Starfire asked worriedly.
"I dunno. Has he snapped or something?" Cyborg asked in confusion. Robin was still shouting madly.
"WHAT?" Cyborg shouted back.
VRUUUUUUMMM! Another deafening blast sounded, and Cyborg put his hand to his ear to try to make out what Robin was saying. Amidst his yelling, Cyborg discerned two words:
"NO SHIELD!"
Cyborg peered around the building to see for himself. Surely enough, he could see the rain pounding against the tripod, completely undeterred. The metallic teen turned to the others and motioned with his hand.
"Now's our chance! Let's get it!" he called. He ran out from behind the wall, with Starfire and Slade close behind, to join their leader.
"Wait, first I'm gonna make sure," Cyborg said in a resolute voice. "Alright, let's see if it works this time," he thought to himself.
The bionic teen readied his sonic cannon and aimed it straight at the tripod's head. "Alright guys, say hello to my little friend!" he shouted and let loose a blast from his arm. The beam of energy shot towards the machine and detonated against the head. Shards of metal and glass flew up in the air as a black hole was blown into its side. The tripod reeled from the impact and stumbled, but still didn't fall down.
"It's vulnerable!" Robin shouted. "Titans, GO!"
Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire charged the staggering machine. Slade followed close behind, formulating his own plans.
Starfire flew up to get closer to the head, though she still kept enough distance so the tentacles couldn't reach her. "This is for friends Raven and Beast Boy!" she yelled furiously. Her eyes and hands glowed green, and she let lose a furious barrage of bolts at it. Bolt after bolt struck the head, causing the machine to stumble more and more.
Robin readied his grappling hook and fired it at the tripod. The hook spun around and hooked onto its tail laser. Robin shot upward as the hook retracted, and he landed right on top of it, straddling it like a horse. "This is for Jump City," he growled. He took out his fighting staff and swung hard. The laser's head smashed and splintered into hundreds of pieces of metal and glass. The boy wonder struck again just to make sure it was disabled for good. Taking his grappling hook again, he latched it onto a nearby building and leapt away to safety.
Cyborg raised his arm again. "This is for Earth!" he shouted. He took aim and fired another round at the head, though also keeping track to make sure he didn't deplete his sonic cannons completely. Another explosion ripped into it. The machine now started to lean forward. It was now very close…
Slade ran forward and underneath the tripod so he was just next to one of its legs. Once there, the masked villain pulled out a device from his belt and planted it on the leg. The device latched on and let out a beeping noise, and Slade ran off. Seconds after he did so, the device exploded, severing the foot of the tripod from the rest of its leg.
That did it, and the machine tipped forward and slowly started falling over. The Titans decided that was enough and vacated the scene to avoid being crushed as it fell over.
"TIMBER!" Cyborg shouted as he retreated. It fell down, scraping and smashing a building along the way, and finally the machine collided with the ground in a thunderous crash. The Titans ducked behind a wall to avoid the dust and debris being kicked up by the machine. Flames erupted from the head in a dazzling display as it grinded along the ground, overturning cars and knocking down poles in the street until it came to a screeching halt.
And then, silence.
Slowly, cautiously, the three young superheroes emerged from behind. Around them, shocked soldiers and civilians alike emerged from hiding to see what had just happened. Everyone gaped in amazement at the downed tripod. The lifeless, metallic monster lay dead and motionless. Everyone stopped, unsure of what to do at first. A brief pause passed through the entire scene. Even the rain stopped.
Their curiosity took hold of them and they neared the head to get a closer look at it. Its windows were all cracked and dark, but they still couldn't see behind them. Robin stepped forward ahead of everyone else. He slowly approached it until he was within mere feet of it.
Without warning, a port at the side of the head popped open and a yellowish-orange liquid poured out, prompting several yelps and gasps from the crowd. Robin stepped back and paused momentarily until the liquid stopped flowing. But that wasn't it. The sound of something moving could be heard inside. A moment passed, and a large four-fingered claw emerged from the opening, followed by the grotesque head of a Martian. Several people cried out once more in surprise. Robin however, didn't back away. Cyborg and Starfire followed close behind.
The alien really did look as if it were about to die. Its exoskeleton was a much lighter shade of gray than he remembered, and its eyes seemed glazed over. It seemed to be struggling just to move. A dark liquid was leaking out of its mouth and some cracks in its exoskeleton, which Robin took as blood. He approached the struggling alien until he was standing right in front of it, only two feet away. The alien looked up at him with its huge black eyes. Even with its inhuman face, Robin could see the hatred in its eyes as it looked at him, then at the rest of the crowd. Robin merely stared back, triumphant and unafraid. For a moment, it almost seemed as if the will between races was being fought out in those two individuals. The Martian let out a final, drawn-out hiss, and with that its entire body collapsed and went limp.
Another gasp went through the crowd. Starfire put her hands over her mouth in shock, while Cyborg leaned in to get a closer look. Robin reached out and took the Martian's limp hand in his. He leaned closer and examined the eyes, which had already gone gray and stared blankly ahead. It didn't move an inch. Slowly, Robin put the hand back down and backed away, still staring at its lifeless form.
"It's dead," he muttered silently. He turned around to face his friends and the rest of the crowd. A wide grin spread across his face. "It's dead!" he shouted.
A loud cheer erupted from the crowd. Several cries of joy and happy sobs could be heard from the jovial mass. Tears of happiness were now streaming from Starfire's face. Cyborg collapsed on his knees fists clenched, and kept chanting "Yes! Yes! Yes!" Robin merely stood there, looking at the smoldering wreckage with a satisfied smile.
The Titans didn't even see the crowd rushing toward them and were almost ran over, as happy and thankful soldiers and civilians scrambled to thank them. They all had to back away to avoid being overwhelmed. Amidst this, Robin remembered something. He looked around, and let out a sigh. Slade was gone. He couldn't see him anywhere.
"Slade's gone, guys," Robin muttered in between the many 'thank you's they were being pelted with. Cyborg and Starfire nodded, though it really didn't matter much now. He wasn't going to be any sort of threat for a long time. Nevertheless, Starfire felt she should briefly look around just to see if she could find him. She hovered up and flew away from the crowd.
"Where're you going, Star?" Robin called after her. The alien flew up an inclined street until she was at the top of a rather large hill. Once there, she gasped in amazement.
"Friends! Come here! You must see this amazing sight!" Her voice sounded joyful and excited.
Eager to see what it was, Robin and Cyborg broke through the crowd and headed for their companion. They ran up the steep street until they reached the top. Once there, they too stared in amazement.
A magnificent view lay before them. They could see almost the entire landscape before them. The clouds were finally dissipating and streaks of sunlight were shining through. But that wasn't what caught their attention. Amidst the buildings, scattered here and there, were several tripods, all of them downed and lifeless. Some were smashed against buildings, others lay in the streets.
None of them could believe it. It was as some divine will just struck them all dead at once. All three of them stood there, taking in the sight. Starfire without warning pulled Robin into a tight hug. Cyborg rolled his eyes.
"Why does that never happen to me?" he grumbled. A second later he felt Starfire pull him into a suffocating embrace as well. Right after that, she went back to hugging Robin.
After a few moments of just standing there, taking in the view, they finally decided to head back down.
"You guys need any help?" Robin asked the soldiers.
"Nah, I think we got it covered," one of them said as he tried to get the crowd of citizens to move on.
"Hey guys, you gotta here this," one of the soldiers said as he listened through his radio.
"What?"
"Something crazy's going on. The enemy advances are stopping everywhere. We're getting reports from all over of scorpions just falling over for no reason at all. It's happening everywhere!"
"That's weird," another soldier remarked.
Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire looked at each other, still unsure of what was going on. They all pondered this situation, unsure of what to do. Finally, Robin looked up at his companions with a triumphant grin plastered across his face.
"Let's go home, guys."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
No, it's not over yet. Just one chapter left to go! I enjoyed writing this chapter. I didn't want to make the scene too much like the one in the movie (hence the reason there were no birds involved), and I think it ended up better for it. (hope you also enjoyed the little Scarface quote, another great movie) As always, please review. I must say I've enjoyed writing this fic, though I'll be glad to get it done. Once I'm done with this I'll finally be able to finish my other fic as well, which has been becoming quite a burden to finish. Mostly just because it's gotten so. dang. long.
