"Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moon light?" -The Joker
………………………………………………………………………………...
Chains rattled above her.
Arrowette's arms were suspended above her via handcuffs and a chain. The chain led up to another metal platform, similar to the one she stood on. She was uncomfortable, and extremely frustrated with herself for being captured by the villain.
She tried to consol herself by telling herself that it happened to the best of heroes. Red X had told her about how Chang had captured four of the five Titans, and how he had saved Robin. It happened to the best of heroes every now and then.
But that still didn't make her any less pleased. At least he hadn't removed her mask… yet.
Far below Titan's Tower was the main cavity that had been dug by Slade's worms. Slade had originally installed platforms and catwalks, an elevator or two, and a central computer on a main suspended platform. However, Haze had installed more support beams, catwalks, and another platform closer to the ceiling of the cavity. She guessed Haze's Zynothium powered bomb was on that higher and smaller platform he added.
"So, what do you think of my little office?", Haze asked as he walked up to her, speaking as usual in his sophisticated accent. Arrowette could swear Haze must have been taught in one of those pretty schools where even the elementary kids wore ties.
She didn't reply to his question, only glared at him. She noted how horribly creepy he was. Creepier then she would have thought. So he had a purple suit and an educated accent? No rich kid should be that scary. But there was just something about Haze that oozed a disturbing feeling. There was just something about him. And the more she observed him, the more she felt it.
And it had a tendency to chill her to the bone.
"I admit, it's not quite finished yet. But I think my men are making good improvements." He stopped admiring the large cavity below Titans Tower and looked closer at her. "You don't talk much, do you?"
"Sorry, being taken hostage in your little grudge war with Red X doesn't exactly put me in a good mood."
"I would imagine not. But it wont matter much longer."
"Why? Gonna blow up the city?", she asked sarcastically.
"Why, yes."
Arrowette blinked a few times. "You serious?"
Haze smirked under his helmet. "Ah… So now you're interested." He probably grinned. "Originally I just planned on detonating a Zynothium dirty bomb. Zynothium is actually only unstable when it's exposed to oxygen or when power is being drawn from it during a reaction. Did you know that? So if done right, a great deal of the city would receive radiation poisoning from a Zynothium dirty bomb. But then I thought… Why stop there?"
Arrowette stared at him.
"After all, if I put it under Titans Tower, maybe they'd be blamed. Or better yet…" He pointed upwards. "If I manage to blast into the Titan's power core…"
She was silent.
"If the Tower's power core becomes unstable, then it might just explode. Which will obliterate Titans Tower.", Haze said with a sick sort of glee.
"You're going to blow up the Tower!"
"Yes! And when it explodes it'll send piece of the Tower all around like shrapnel! And it'll spread the radiation for the charged Zynothium too!"
Arrowette stared at him with wide eyes and a slightly dropped jaw. She finally understood the scope of it all. This wasn't just a nice little bomb dramatically placed under Titans Tower.
"Then entire coast will be hit with the debris from Titans Tower, raining down from the sky like meteors! And the surviving half of the city will probably get radiation poisoning! Let's see Slade or Brother Blood do that! Huh! I wont just ruin the city, I'll get rid of it forever! The only things that can ever live in Jump City again are roaches!"
Arrowette stared at him with wide eyes. "But… Why? Why would you destroy an entire city and everyone in it?"
"Because I hate the Titans. And because I can.", he answered calmly. Then he turned from her and walked off, his cape waving behind him.
Arrowette watched him helplessly as he walked off. Her chains bound tight around her wrists made sure that there was nothing she could do at all. And oh how she would have loved to just lunge at him, and beat him without mercy.
And now that she knew what he planned to do she was even more disturbed by Haze then ever before. But more horrifying then what he planned to do was why he planned to do it.
Just because he hated five heroes, he was willing to destroy everyone they guarded.
A chill ran down her spine…
A lackey, dressed in his hazmat suit, ran up to Haze with a device in his hand. "Sir!", he called as he ran up. "Sir, we might have a problem."
"Oh what now, you twit?", Haze asked, this problem obviously beneath him.
"You… Have a call…"
"What?"
The lackey handed Haze the device, a communicator of some kind, and Haze took it.
"Hello?", Haze spoke into the communicator.
"Nice place ya got here.", Red X said.
Arrowette's head perked up and a slight smile crept over her lips.
Meanwhile, in another sections of the tunnels dug by Slade's worms, Red X sat on a tied up and unconscious lackey like he was a bench. "I bet with a little elbow grease, you could have this place looking like a piece of crud in no time.", Red X taunted into the communicator he stole from the lackey.
Haze gripped the communicator in his hand tightly, and tried to keep his voice calm. "Ah…", he began as if examining a fine piece of art. "So you've found my secret lair. Bravo. You are quite the cunning piece of work."
"Stuff it, you Ivy league drop out.", Red X ordered curtly. "I'm calling you for one reason, and one reason only."
"Which is?"
"A choice. Either you come over here and kiss my butt… Or I'm coming over there to kick yours.", Red X said with a voice like venom.
Haze glared and the communicator and shut if off.
Red X stared at the communicator he'd stolen from the lackey. "Bad choice."
Haze threw his communicator off the platform and let it fall into the seemingly endless abyss beneath the platforms. He cursed under his breath, and looked over too Arrowette.
She smirked. "You are so doomed."
-X-
Lackeys and supplies rested in a sort of camp in another large cavern underground. It was the cavern where the Titans, including Terra, had once gathered and discovered three of Slade's worms. The worms simply appeared and then dug another tunnel on their way out. Between the worms and the Titans, eight tunnels entered and existed the large cavity.
And it was here that lackeys had set up a sort of campsite. Tents, propane generators, and porto potty's littered the area.
Two lackeys in hazmat suits stood by the entrance of one tunnel.
Suddenly two grey hands emerged from the darkness, grabbed one lackey around his head and neck, and swiftly pulled him back into the devouring darkness.
The second guard yelled. "Hey! Hey over here!" He raised his weapon and pointed it at the tunnel's entrance. "Something happened to Eduardo!"
"What are you talking about now?", another lackey said.
Suddenly a red line appeared from the darkness, Red X's new X-webbing, hit the lackey's leg, and anchored itself. Then the red line went taunt and pulled the lackey's feet from under him.
"Umph!"
The line pulled back into the darkness, dragging the guard with him.
"What? No. NO! Agh!", The guard clawed at the hard rocky ground as the line pulled him into the darkness where his friend Eduardo had disappeared it. "Help me!", he screamed as he disappeared feet first into the darkness.
Then it was quiet.
The other lackeys had all be alerted and stood watching, both interested and horrified at the same time.
It was quiet.
They gradually grabbed their weapons and approached closer.
It was quiet.
One lackey raised his weapon and looked into the shadows.
It was quiet.
Then Red X appeared in front of him, phasing into sight and materializing like a living nightmare. Before the lackey could mutter a sound, Red X was in the air and his heel was deeply implanted into the lackey's mask.
The hapless lackey fell back and X charged.
Letting out a battle cry, Red X dodged the end of a blaster staff, grabbed it, ripped it from it's owner's hands, then beat the owner's head once with a savage blow. Red X jumped to the side and twirled the blaster staff in his hands before leaping back into the group.
Red X weaved in between blasts and attacked with the staff. His moves and actions, purely reflexive at this point, like a wounded and angry beast striking, became lost to even Red X himself.
One lackey ran, and Red X threw the staff. It spun and over and before impacting the back of the lackey's head and sent him to the ground. X grabbed another lackey's arm and punched the side of the elbow, grievously wounding the joint, if not breaking it, with a POP sound.
Red X jumped back with a somersault and out of the group to access the situation and his enemies. 3 lackeys left, scared, heart rate up, panicked, lousy weapons.
He raised his arm, flicked three-collapsed shuriken from his glove and into his hand, then threw them. The three weapons quickly unfolded in mid-air and stabbed each lackey in the chest.
They panicked for a moment, thinking they'd been stabbed deeply, and then realized the hazmat suits were thick enough to protect them from anything but a bad prick.
But by then, Red X was right in front of them again.
He stole the blaster staff from one and slammed its live end into the gut of another lackey.
He spin heel kicked one in the face and broke his facemask apart.
He punched the third in the stomach then uppercutted him in the face.
A few more lackeys rushed to the scene.
And the carnage continued.
-X-
"Boss! He's at the Holding Cavern!", one lackey said as he rushed into the main cavern below the tower. "He's tearing us apart!", he yelled to Haze.
"WHAT!", Haze screamed.
Arrowette smirked, obviously enjoying every moment of her imprisonment now. "Told ya."
"Oh will you shut up!", Haze replied to her as he rushed to a ladder and climbed up to the higher platform he'd added just below the caverns ceiling.
On top of the added platform was a simple device like a large round console in the middle. Protruding from the top of it was a frail metal claw that held up a single via of Zynothium. It was the Zynothium bomb.
A lackey was checking readings and working at the bomb's consol.
"Status report.", Haze demanded, as if that was what he was supposed to demand.
"Technically the Dirty Bomb's ready.", the lackey told him. "Not very robust and it's held together with used chewing gum and paperclips… But it'll blow."
"Can it blow past all that and into the Tower's power core still?" Haze pointed to the ceiling of unstable stone.
"Not sure. If we had some more C4 it'd have a better chance. All I can guarantee is a loud boom and a lot of radiation."
"What are the chance's it'll blow the Titan's power core?"
"Pretty okay, I'd say. Sixty percent chance maybe. But I can't say for sure. We don't know how much shielding they have up there."
"That'll have to do for now."
"You don't seriously plan to detonate this now, do you, boss?"
Haze grabbed the hapless lackey by the fabric on the chest of his hazmat suit. "If Red X gets in this cavern, then… YES!" He threw the lackey aside and then leaned over the railing of the platform next to a blaster-gatling gun. "Get him! Get Red X! Or you'll all be in this stupid cave when I blow it sky high!"
-X-
"Unreal! I swear it was like two ninjas taped together then compressed into one super ninja!", a lackey said as he ran to another lackey, down the tunnel near the entrance to the large cavern with Haze's bomb. That lackey had just come from the battle site where Red X had begun to attack the poorly equipped lackeys.
"You were there?", the second, slightly fatter, lackey said.
"Yeah! I just barely escaped!", the first lackey exclaimed. Then he turned around and pointed his freeze ray down the tunnel. "Who knows? He could be come down here right now!"
"No way. There was anywhere from five to ten of us in there, maybe twelve if Scotty and Kyle are back. You're saying that thief took them all out?"
"With enthusiasm!", the first lackey said with his freeze ray aimed down the tunnel. "And why not? Him and Robin took a lot of the original guys down the first time, back when we worked for Chang." Then something caught his eye, a shine or a small reflection that suddenly vanished after only a moment. "He's here!"
"No way. That's impossible- Umph!" The second and fatter lackey was suddenly interrupted mid-sentence as a sticky-x hit in him the face. And when the sticky-x slapped his mask it carried with it the force of a punch, knocking the lackey off his balance.
"Agh!", the remaining lackey yelled in panic as he fired his freeze ray wildly, and froze a wall of solid ice to cut him off from whatever terror was in the tunnel.
Then the lackey stood still and stared at the giant wall of ice, waiting for any response from whatever monster had been chasing him.
"Psst. Behind you.", Red X said.
The lackey turned around with a yelp, and then Red X grabbed his throat. The other lackey was already lying on the floor.
Red X glared. "Let's dance…"
-X-
"Status report! I want a status report!", Haze screamed to the remaining lackeys in his cavern beneath Titans Tower. "Where is he!"
"Communication with the Holding Cavern has ceased. Communication with the tunnel guards too.", one lackey shouted back up.
"Somebody's gonna get his butt kicked…", Arrowette sang aloud. "Somebody's gonna get his butt kicked…."
"Shut up, insolent woman!", Haze yelled back, panic creeping at his voice. "Seal the tunnel!", he ordered.
"But, sir! We don't know if the rest of us are okay!", another lackey yelled back.
"I don't care! Seal it or none of you will be okay!", Haze ordered. "Freeze it! Goo it up! Seal it!"
Lackey's gathered at the tunnels entrance, which was connected to the main platform by an added bridge, and fired their freeze rays and goo guns, effectively creating a wall of ice and frozen red goo to seal off the tunnel.
Arrowette watched with a smug sense of satisfaction. Red X may have been a thief, but he wasn't the worst person in the world. He might have even have grown close enough to consider her a friend. And she was enjoying the panic that swarmed around her as she hung from her chained wrists. They were all scared of him.
And if she wasn't on his side… She'd be scared too.
Thump!
A loud noise sounded against the wall of ice and frozen goo from the other side. Then it was quiet again. But it was only quiet for a moment.
Boom!
Suddenly the blast from a well-placed x-mine blew the wall apart. And among the rubble of ice and frozen goo flew one of the lackey's that was in the tunnel with Red X.
Then Red X himself materialized while jumping out of the tunnel.
"FIRE!", Haze ordered.
X dived over the side of the bridge, dodging countless blasts from the remaining lackeys, and fired x-webbing. The red line hit another bridge and X held on tight as he swung down, below the platforms and over the seemingly endless abyss, and back up.
At the apex of his swing upwards, Red X let go of the line of x-webbing, drew in his arms and limbs as he spun in the air, then flung his arms out to launch countless smoke bombs and shrunken from high up in the air.
The shuriken and smoke bombs rained over the lackeys, surrounding them in smoke and rips of their hazmat suits.
In midair while beginning to fall, Red X reached into his belt and quickly withdrew his grapnel gun and fired. The grapnel anchored to jagged rock above the cavern and Red X jerked when the line stopped his fall. Then he flew upwards as the line retracted.
High up on the added platform with the zynothium dirty bomb, Haze and the extra lackey watched.
"The blaster-gatling gun!", Haze yelled to himself as he ran over to prepare it. Then suddenly Red X flew by in a blur of black, and grabbed the lackey that was on the platform with him. Red X flew upwards on the retracting line a bit more, then released the line and dove downwards again in a controlled fall, with the screaming lackey in hand.
Below, Arrowette watched all this like a movie patron mesmerized by the action movie of the year.
A lackey ran up to her, caring her bow and set of arrows. "Here! Take them!"
She blinked a few times in confusion. "What?"
The lackey tossed her bow and arrows by her feet. "Go! Get out of here! And take that… Thing with you!"
"You mean Red X?"
"Yes! Get him out of here!"
"Head's up!", Red X yelled from high above.
And when the lackey, who handed Arrowette her bow and arrows, looked up, the lackey that Red X had grabbed from the upper platform immediately impaled him. Both lackeys fell to the floor in a daze.
Red X landed with his back to Arrowette, and his cape fell around him like a declaration of his prowess. He looked back to her as his grapnel retracted itself back into the grapnel gun.
Arrowette tried to chuckle and grin. "Nice to see you again."
"I bet.", Red X stood and turned around, his cape whipping out of the way, and he threw and explosive shuriken at the chain above Arrowette's head.
It exploded, and the lose chain fell beside her in a neat little pile of clanking metal.
Red X ran to her with his x-blade extended from his hand.
Arrowette held out her hands and closed her eyes as X deftly cut the cuffs apart in one swift stroke.
"Some rescue.", Arrowette said as she disassembled the bands of the broken cuffs and rubbed her sore wrists. "Didn't think the whole big battle was your style."
"Hey, even I know how to have a good time.", Red X said as he retracted his x-blade and composed himself.
"Speaking of good times…", Arrowette said with as smirk as she looked behind Red X at a group of approaching lackeys.
Red X peeked over his caped shoulder and said, "Don't mind if I do.", as Arrowette strapped on her bow and set of arrows.
The next few moments were art. A dance. Ballet.
Red X and Arrowette working in sync, much like Red X and Robin had once fought in sync at Chang's observatory. Arrowette was more skilled at kickboxing and Judo then most people gave her credit for. Even though she was no match for Red X, he had to admire her grace and form as she impaled lackeys with her foot and shattered arms with joint locks. Oh, and she had a knack at whacking heads with her bow.
The last lackey flew backwards and hit his back against the railing of the platform.
Instinctively, Arrowette and Red X stood back to back again in fighting stances. And as they stood catching their breaths, a white dove flew over their heads majestically.
"Uh… X, what in the world is a dove doing in here?", Arrowette said.
"Got me.", Red X replied.
"You!", Haze yelled from above.
Both the thief and the heroine looked up to see the megalomaniac in a purple suit aim his blaster-gatling gun at them.
"Eat this!", Haze yelled as he fired.
Red X and Arrowette dived away from each other to avoid a few blasts. Red X spread his cape, to make him a bigger target and increase the chances Haze would only hit the cape, and dove over the edge again.
With the speed of any quick draw marksmen, Red X withdrew his grapnel gun and fired. With the grapnel anchored, Red X swung upwards on the retracting line towards the support beams that webbed over the walls of the cavern.
Haze kept firing his blaster-gatling gun, trained on Red X.
Red X's grapnel retracted back into the gun as he landed on a support beam and jumped to the next.
Haze kept firing.
Then Red X landed on a beam, then turned to face Haze as he stood upright. An instant before the blasts of energy could touch him he disappeared.
Haze yelled in an irrational frustration then cried out, "Where did you go!" He continued firing like a mad man, hoping to some how hit the thief wherever he had gone. "Why wont you just disintegrate!"
Arrowette called out with a whistle.
Haze looked down.
She had a razor sharp arrow, aimed strait at Haze, cocked tightly into her bow, and a delicious smirk befitting any troublemaker. She released her grip on the bowstring, and it made a twip sound as it released the arrow, which flew like a bullet hyped on medication.
The arrow hit the barrel of the firing blaster-gatling with enough force to send the gun rotating around, blasting and destroying in it's path. Haze panicked at first, trying to catch the rapid-fire hellfire-machine. Then he had to duck and cover to avoid the blaster's attempt to put hundreds of holes in his head. "NO!" Haze jumped up the second he was clear and wrapped his arms around the base of the blaster to stop it from hitting the zynothium bomb on the same level. He kicked away the power cable free from its coupling to stop the blaster just before it could've destroyed the bomb.
"Phew…" Haze slumped down to the ground away from the live power cable with a sigh of relieve. "It's safe…"
Then he heard a thump against metal and the tripod mount of the gatling-blaster violently shook once as it to compensate for added weight.
Haze slowly looked from the base of the tripods legs upwards.
"But you're not…", Red X said, as he perched atop the blaster and displayed his most horrible death glare.
Crack!
Thump!
Umph!
Thump!
Oof!
Agh!
Those were the sounds that echoed as Red X almost literally kicked Haze across the platform, one attack at a time.
Haze continued to back up, attempting to regain his balance as Red X continue to punch his head without mercy and impale his gut with his foot. Red X uppercutted and then kneed Haze's stomach and the purple-clad villain backed up against the railing of his platform. Then X took a single step back for appropriate range, and sent his foot strait upwards and kicked Haze in the jaw of his helmet, and sent him flying over the railing.
Haze landed hard on the cold and unforgiving metal floor, the padding of his suit absorbing a great portion of the force from his fall. But that didn't mean that his head wasn't spinning like a tilt-a-whirl gone out of control.
The ground shook again when Red X landed just in front of his head with a heavy landing and a loud thump. The thief leaned down and clutched Haze by the shoulders of his cape and pulled him up enough for his head to droop and hang dizzy below.
"Huh! Well! Ya looked for me all this time! Here I am! I don't even know why you wanted me on your wall so bad… But here I am! Now what!", Red X yelled.
Haze said nothing, but held out his closed hand, which now clutched a hand-held detonator with a red plunger for the thumb to press.
"Oh great.", Red X said.
Haze pressed the red plunger with his thumb and suddenly red lights through out the cavern light and rotated like sirens.
X carelessly dropped haze back on the metal floor. "Now what!"
"I don't know!", Arrowette said as she ran up.
"Zynothium detonation in five minuets.", a computerized female voice said over a loud speaker somewhere.
"Typical.", Red X said unamused.
Then Haze sprang to life and ran off down the platform.
"What? He played possum?", Arrowette said.
"Why you little-", Red X said as he took a step to pursue, but then Arrowette grabbed the edge of his cape and held him back. He looked back at her.
"You're the last guy here who knows anything about Zynothium that's till conscious.", she said as she held on to the tatters of his cape. "Go defuse that bomb!"
Red X looked back to Haze as he disappeared down a second tunnel that had recently been dug by someone other then Slade's worms. "Yeah. Okay. You're right." He narrowed his eyes and looked back to Arrowette. "Can you please let go of my cape now?"
Arrowette did so. "How do we get out of here? I was blindfolded when he brought me here."
Red X pointed to the first tunnel entrance he came out of. "Go down that tunnel. Follow the trail of unconscious lackeys out of here. Take my bike."
"But-"
Red X interrupted her by handing her the key to his bike; the key chain being nothing more then leather charm with a skull on it similar to the one of his face.
She timidly cupped her hands together as he dropped it in her hands.
"Go."
"But what about you?"
"Did I stutter?", Red X asked sternly.
Arrowette was silent, and almost leaned up to kiss his cheek again, but instead just nodded like a little girl and ran off down the tunnel.
Other lackeys in the cavern were running away or carrying the lackeys who were unconscious.
"Well… Never wanted to live forever anyway.", Red X said.
He reached to his belt and withdrew his grapnel gun yet again, and within a few seconds was atop the second platform with the zynothium bomb.
He approached the large consol and beheld the zynothium vial that was held by a thin robotic claw.
Ignoring the flashing red lights around him, he slowly reached out and touched the vial as carefully as he touched any painting on a heist.
Then he lifted vial upwards. The robotic claw released its grip on the vial, sensing the pressure difference of another touch on the vial.
X held up the vial to examine it, and he looked at the rest of the bomb as it shut down and the red lights went off.
"Zynothium detonation error reached. Aborting project and awaiting further instruction.", the computerized female voice said.
"Well, that was easy!", Red X said as he tucked the vial safely away in a long horizontal compartment on the very back of his belt. He looked back at the rest of the bomb and saw that it was in fact very inactive.
Now for Haze…
-X-
"Don't know… How you found me… I'll get you, X… you and the Titans… get you X… I'll get you…", Haze muttered to himself as he ran down the second tunnel.
The only reason this tunnel had ever been dug was to allow a secret access to Haze's lair, or rather an entrance near his home.
"I'll get you… Red X… And your little side kick cheerleader too…"
Suddenly Red X himself grabbed Haze's shoulders and threw him into the wall of the tunnel beside them.
"Oof!", Haze said as his head bounced off the solid rock and he fell to the ground. "Ugh…", Haze moaned as he cleared his head on the ground. Then he saw Red X looming over him with squared shoulders and tightly narrowed eyes.
"Get up.", the thief said.
"Why you…", Haze hissed as he slowly stood up. "I ought to…"
"Cram it!", Red X said as he held out his hand. "You've talked enough. You've been hunting me down and giving me a royal headache!", he said with an accusingly pointed finger.
Haze was quiet but his fists were tightly clenched.
"I've been thinking a lot about what I'd say to you if I ever met you face to face…", Red X said menacingly.
Haze stared him down.
Then Red X relaxed his shoulders and withdrew a small white pad of paper from a compartment on his belt behind his back. "Ahem. You're so ugly that when you were born, the doctor slapped your mother.", he said aloud as he read off the pad of paper.
Haze widened his eyes and dropped his jaw under his helmet in almost comical shock. "…What?"
Red X held up his hand again. "Not done yet." Then he read aloud again, "You're so dumb, you thought a quarterback was what happened when you gave a dollar to the peanut guy at the football game."
Haze slowly overcame his shock and slowly lowered his head in an animalistic rage. "You stupid Neanderthal…", Haze began.
"Didn't like that? How about this one?", Red X said. "You're such a preppy that you have to pay a membership fee to consider yourself a member of the rest of the human race."
Haze growled and lunged at the thief turned stand up comedian.
But Red X side stepped Haze without looking away from his pad of paper and said, "You're so ugly, you'd scare a police horse."
Haze accidentally ran right into the other wall after Red X narrowly dodge him. He turned his head around and said, "Stop that!"
"Man, tough room tonight.", Red X said. "You're so stupid that it must have been the lifeguard's day off when you were in the gene pool."
"AGH!", Haze lunged at X and swung his fists wildly to try and hit Red X.
But Red X dodged each fist without looking away from his pad of paper. "You're so ugly that when you stuck your head out your window you were arrested for mooning."
"Stop it!", Haze whined like a child as he continued his futile assault.
Red X front kicked Haze in the stomach effortlessly and sent the purple megalomaniac to the ground again.
Haze sulked on the ground a moment.
"You're so ugly that 'Baywatch' would let you drown. You're so fat that when you back up I can hear a beeping sound.", Red X said, ignoring Haze.
"Stop it…", Haze whined.
"What's wrong?", Red X asked cruelly as he put away his pad of paper. "Don't like it when someone just wont leave you alone? Don't like it when someone just keeps coming at you." Red X slowly walked closer. "Just keeps… Coming back. Again and again." He leaned down somewhat and narrowed his eyes. "Don't like it, do you?"
"Stop it, stop it, stop it!" Haze yelled as he threw himself up off the ground.
Red X stood up and took a step back but held his ground.
"You…", Hazed began. "You have no idea what I've been through!"
"Yeah! I don't! I have no clue who you or why you hate me!", Red X said.
"You stole it all from me! You and the Titans!"
"Yeah yeah yeah… We took the only love you ever had. Sorry, doesn't cut it for me. What exactly did I do to you? What did the Titans do?"
"You stole my father from me!", Haze yelled back. "It was always about the Teen Titans with him! That's all he ever talked about! Robin this! Starfire that! Cyborg! Raven! Even Beast Boy! He loved them! More then me! Always talking about them, donating to them, and idolizing them."
"Lots of people talk about them. Donate money to them. They're the city's superheroes.", Red X pointed out.
"Robin was the son he never had!" Haze continued his rant, seemingly unaware of Red X. He even began pacing back and forth along the ground with his hands up in the air. "Constantly hassling me to be more like Robin! More like the Titans! He couldn't just accept me and love me!" He paused and lowered his arms, his back to Red X. "And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse…" He turned around and pointed accusingly at Red X. "You came along!"
"Me?"
"Yes you! You brought… her… into my life."
Red X paused, "Her?"
"You robbed us! Stole from us! Granted, the Titans recovered the stolen goods and gave it back to us… Which made my Dad even more adoring of them… But after that, he hired her!"
"Wait a minuet… The Titans never took back any loot I stole.", Red X said, excluding the original zynothium belt that Robin had stolen back.
Haze went on as if Red X had never spoken. "He hired her as head of security! And she was apparently so good at it, that she became his personal assistant! She was over all the time! At dinner! For movie night! She was always there! And at first I only mildly hated her, but then the day came when we found out… That she was my sister!"
"Whoa, wait a minuet. You mean to tell me that same girl he hired turned out to be your sister? How's that remotely possible?"
He turned around and began pacing back and forth away and then towards Red X. "Then he adopted her and she moved in with us! She tried to be so nice… Oh how I hated her when she pretended to be nice!"
"Hello? Haze? You still with me here?", Red X said, trying to get his attention again.
"Every night she tried to be nice, rubbing it in my face that she was better! Rubbing it in my face with her blasted cookies. Oh how I hate her moist and deliciously irresistible cookies! OH HOW I HATE THEM! HATE HER!"
"Meanwhile, in reality!", Red X yelled.
Haze was suddenly aware of Red X's presence again. "You… You and the Titans ruined my life…"
"Oh, will you shut up!", Red X yelled. "You spoiled little rich brat!" Red X rushed forward and punched Haze squarely on the side of his helmet, wrenching the young villain aside. "I've known people who've slept on the streets! On the cold, hard concrete! You slept in a bed!" Red X punched him again with the other fist and Haze wrenched to the other side.
Haze raised his arms to attack, but X instinctively blocked and kneed him in the stomach.
"And I didn't forget them either!" X kneed Haze two more times before pushing him away, where Haze held his stomach in pain for a moment. "I didn't forget! I may be swimming in cash now, but I never ever forgot what it's like on the streets!" X kicked Haze's head without warning with a powerful thrust kick.
Haze stumbled backwards and held onto rock protruding from the tunnel's wall.
Red X grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him away from the wall. "I survived and ya know what!" Then Red X slammed Haze back into the wall hard. He pulled him back away from the wall. "I give to charity!", Red X confessed.
X slammed Haze into the wall a second time. Then he pulled Haze away from the wall and tossed him aside like an old unwanted rag doll. "That's right!", he said as Haze rolled on the hard ground. "I give money to churches and homeless shelters!"
Haze moaned on the floor.
Then Red X grabbed him again, picked him up, and pushed him back.
Haze struggled to catch his balance.
"Bet you never would've guessed that my dirty little secret is tax deductible!" Red X punched Haze again with powerful right cross, putting his whole hips and back into it to increase the force of the punch. The blow contacted Haze's helmet with bone crunching power, and Haze flew aside head first into the rocky wall of the tunnel.
Haze slammed against the wall head first, then leaned against the wall.
Red X lowered his fists to waste level, his cape draping over his shoulders and upper arms. "Get up.", he said.
Haze didn't move for a moment. Then he moved an inch away from the wall, and Red X saw shards of glass fall from Haze's helmet. "You talk…" He paused. "You talk as if you're a saint." He backed away from the wall, then slowly turned around, his head peeking over his purple shoulder first.
Red X's eyes widened.
A portion of the left side of Haze's large skull-shaped visor had cracked and fallen away, revealing his left cheek, a blue eye, and locks of curly dark red hair just above it. The left side of his fair and lightly colored face had the unmistakable trappings of youth.
"You're…", Red X said as his eyes narrowed into an inquisitive stare.
"That's right…", Haze said. "I'm just a kid. A teenager. Just like you. Just like the Teen Titans." His gaze narrowed and a glare clearly came from his one visible blue eye. "Odd, isn't it?"
Red X paused while he regained his foreboding domineer. "Not really… What teenager doesn't wear tights these days?"
"I really do hate you, you know. Possibly more now then the Titans..."
"Feeling's mutual. I definitely like them more then you."
"Did the Titan's steal something from you too?"
"Other way around, dip stick."
"Bet they wish they never created you."
"Probably do."
"Bet you wish you never created me." , he said with a strangely satisfied look in his eye.
X narrowed his eyes and clenched his fist. "I didn't create you."
"You stole from us. Brought her into my life."
Red X clenched his fists until his knuckles where white under his glove.
"All you're fault…"
"Cram it!" Red X punched him again. "I am SO sick of listening to you!" Then X punched him again with the other fist. "You are such a whiner!" Red X kicked him in the gut again and he flew back. But X snatched the edge of his cape before he hit the ground and whipped him back up by using his cape like a leash.
"I made my little fortune!", X said as he grabbed the side of Haze's head and smashed it against the stone wall again. "You inherited you're cushy little excuse of a life!" Red X threw him aside.
Haze staggered in a dizzy fashion, and then lunged with a punch.
X grabbed the punching arm, threw it aside, and uppercutted Haze's battered gut again. "I survive! I survived back then and I'll survive you!"
Haze pulled away from X's gasp and held his stomach.
"Doesn't matter! I'll survive. Because I know how to take care of myself! You just sit around and blame me because your daddy never played catch in the park with you!"
"Hate you…"
"And because you're not your dad's favorite child! Boo who! Pick a number and get in line behind all the rest of the middle children in the world."
Haze lunged at X aggressively, and Red X took enjoyment in effortlessly slapping away every punch and attack.
"I'll survive you and I'll survive this!"
Haze punched.
Red X caught the Haze's punching fist. "Because I adapt!" He twisted Haze's wrist painfully. "And you…"
Haze glared at X while he twisted his wrist painfully.
"And you…"
Haze continued his death glare.
"You just cry…" Red X uppercutted Haze's jaw hard! "-FOR YOUR DADDY!"
Haze was lifted off his feet and flew headfirst backwards. The world was in slow motion to Red X, and he savored the sight of Haze flying backwards like a lifeless rag doll.
Haze landed and rolled on the floor again, then laid there in defeat.
Red X lowered his clenched fist to his belt level. "And ya know what else, Haze? You're a really bad fighter.", he told Haze.
Haze chuckled weakly while holding his side. "If I'm such a terrible combatant, Red X…" He slowly got up, his purple cape hung from one side of his shoulder like a shredded flag on a day without wind. "…then why…" He turned and stared at Red X like a maniac, his one left eye burning a whole strait into Red X's soul. "…do I have a trump card still!"
Red X watched quietly.
Haze held his side with one hand, and his other hand reached to the back of his belt, which was covered by his dirty purple cape. Then with that hand he removed a small explosive device. Haze began laughing, clearly loosing a grip on the last pieces of his sanity. He pressed a button on the device and it began beeping.
"Until next time…", Haze said before dropping the bomb on the ground. Haze immediately turned to run away down the tunnel.
No room to dodge. It'd be suicide to get closer to the bomb in order to chase Haze further. So Red X did what any sentient creature would do.
He turned around and ran.
KABLAM!
Red X was thrown to the ground as the earth around him shook with violent force. Then something else happened.
There were pipes. Pipes the pumped oxygen, water, and propane through the tunnels for Haze's workers and henchmen.
And the bomb Haze threw ruptured a propane pipe.
A line of fire ensued as the explosion traveled down the propane pipes throughout that tunnel. A maze of fire and wrath continued on as the explosion traveled through pipes out of the tunnel and into the main cavern, back into other tunnels, and all around the underground tunnels that had become Haze's lair.
As Haze ran, he stumbled and barely dodged rocks that fell when the pipes blew them out of their steadfast hold to the walls.
Red X covered his head with his cape and narrowed his body as rocks fell around him, narrowly missing him.
Haze looked back and saw that his bomb had collapsed rock and sealed off the tunnel, locking away Red X. He also saw something that made his newly fractured soul smile with delight.
Water.
Water was beginning to gush from the ceiling of the tunnel.
Between the water pipes and the water above them in Jump City's bay, the tunnel's floor was suddenly saturated with fresh pouring water.
Water also rushed out from spots where rock had fallen after the exploding pipes had knocked the rocks loose and unstable.
"Good bye, after all… Red X.", Haze said, then ran off down the tunnel, hurrying to his exit before the tunnels filled with water.
Red X looked up from the ground he laid on and saw water poring over the rocks that had sealed off the tunnel. It pored viciously.
"Oh… Great."
Red X got up as water gently reached his boot and lapped against it. He ran off down the damaged tunnel, splashing water with his footsteps.
He reached the main cavern by the time the water was at his ankles, and the water pored out of the tunnels entrance down into the seeming abyss below.
With no time for jokes or catch phrases, Red X withdrew his grapnel gun one last time and fired it at the added platform above, and swung. His shadow gracefully crept over the blast marks and used shuriken that were left over from the battle as he swung. He flew towards the tunnel entrance, and a last piece of ice and frozen goo shattered into pieces when he crashed into it, breaking his fall.
Red X retracted the grapnel as he rolled on the ground after impacting the piece of ice, then got up with a groan. He put away his grapnel gun after the grapnel retracted and ran for his life back down the tunnel.
None of the unconscious lackeys he left behind were still there. Arrowette had somehow gotten them or encouraged other lackeys, that were still conscious, to pick them up and run.
Now this… Was adrenalin.
Red X hadn't felt the rush of a successful heist in a while, and even if it was a different kind of rush, he still welcomed the adrenalin rush from running for his life.
He put that energy into running faster, and made his way down the tunnel in record time.
-X-
As the tunnel sloped upwards, Red X continued his trek until he hit the highest elevation of the tunnel before it slopped downwards again. Just as he reached the apex of the slope before the tunnel's path lead downhill, he heard a loud rumble coming from all over him.
He hit the floor again and curled into a small ball, his cape wrapped around him. When the rumble stopped he emerged from his cocoon made of his cape, and stared horrified.
Rocks had caved in and sealed off both ends of the tunnel in front and behind him! Of all the hapless luck!
And, of course, the miniature earthquake that collapsed both sides of the tunnel around also loosened rocks and allowed water to pore more heavily into what little tunnel was left.
Red X felt all the energy wash away from inside him in an instant when he realized what had happened.
He was trapped.
Trapped underground.
Trapped underground in a small tunnel with rapidly flooding waters.
He sat on the elevated ground and contemplated his fate. It would probably take five to ten minuets to flood the entire chamber, he estimated. He had a small rebreather on him, which would provide him with another thirty minuets of air. Forty minuets if he breathed slowly and meditated.
Either way, in less then an hour, he'd be pushing up daisies.
No. No, Red X hadn't given up yet. He told Haze he'd survive this. He couldn't give up. But what was left for him to do? He was trapped. Most of his weapons and explosives were already spent in the battle with Haze and Chang's lackeys, so he couldn't blast his way out.
Red X pretended for an instant that the idea setting off an explosion in a small underground chamber was a good idea.
The thief hung his head down below his shoulders.
"Ya know… I never expected to last forever, but… Do I really have to just sit around and wait for it?", he asked no one in particular. "Couldn't I have gone out in a way that was more exciting? Like fighting zombie ninjas or something?"
The sound of water falling from the ceilings and splashing against the already existing pool of water below filled the small chamber.
"I mean, I know I haven't been a model human being. But there are worse. Lot's worse.", he rationalized.
Then he threw his head up as if to speak directly to the heavens. "And I just saved the city! For the second time! Come on! I don't deserve to go out like this!"
No answer came.
He lowed his head again. "Wonder if anyone will find me. Wonder what Arrowette will tell the Titans." He paused. "Wonder who'll feed my pet rock."
He was quiet for a moment, the water level rising.
…
"Grr… I hate this! Why do I just have to sit around and wait!" He sighed heavily. "Guess if I get sick of waiting, I could always trip the suit's powercore. Talk about going out with a bang. Least it wouldn't be so boring."
…
"Wait a minuet…" Red X looked down at the buckle of his belt, the heart of the suit's power, the Zynothium core. His eyes narrowed in thought. "I wonder…"
He looked up at the ceiling. The chamber was barely lit by two battery powered halogen lights that Chang's lackeys installed; same lights that ran through out all the tunnels. These two lights were anchored to a large boulder just above Red X.
Red X pondered.
He noticed a crack just at the edge of the large bolder and the rest of the packed dirt and rock that made up the ceiling.
Then his eyes widened. "That's it!" He paused. "THAT'S IT!", he shouted with glee. Then he reached behind his back, into a compartment on the back of his belt, and withdrew the zynothium vial he took from the bomb.
Out of explosives? Yeah right! He had a vial of Zynothium! And he wouldn't even have to take any Zynothium out of his belt's powercore, which was a pain in the rear end to access anyway.
Faith and energy returning with the promise of a new a plan, Red X quickly reached into his belt and pulled out his communicator. With it's navigation feature, just like Robin's, Red X discovered he was only five feet below the bottom of Jump City Bay! Of course, those five feet were solid rock, but still.
"No wonder the water's rushing in like art house movie patrons.", Red X commented excitedly.
It was a good sign whenever he made jokes at society's expense.
If he could manage to blow a hole in the ceiling, he could swim out of this trap and escape! He could use his rebreather to ensure he had enough air to make it up to the surface of the bay at his leisure.
"Yeah!"
He rose to his feet with cheer and hope in his heart as he ran over to the large crack.
He grinned sinisterly beneath his mask and crammed the vial of glowing red Zynothium into the crack.
Then he jumped downhill to the end of the tunnel he had come from. He hid behind a large rock that had come undone from the wall and was partially submerged below water. He clung to the rock while he felt the chill of the ice-cold water that now was up to his shoulders.
He quickly reached underwater, and from his belt removed the rebreather. He grasped it in his left hand as he wrapped his left arm around the rock, prepared to use it as a shield. He raised his right arm from the cold water, palm open wide, and held it out.
He pointed his palm at the vial of Zynothium, and then his palm began to glow a bright red as he charged up for a powerful blast of energy.
This was it! He had found a way out! He'd survive after all, if the blast itself didn't make him go splat against the tunnel wall that was.
And as he charged up and prepared to fire, a strange thought randomly entered his mind.
If he made it, if he really survived this, would he change? Would he really give up thieving if he could make it out of here in one piece? Thievery may have made him rich, but it had netted him several enemies, which included both the Teen Titans and Haze. Then again, it had also presented him with a possible friend in Arrowette. And his short but magnificent career as a thief had been the greatest thrill of his life. There wasn't much more he couldn't steal.
Had Red X reached the peak of his career as a super-thief after such a short time? Was it time to hang up the belt and live off of his stolen jewels and loot? He had enough to live pretty comfortably for the rest of his life. And that's if he didn't somehow get into legitimate business.
If he made it out of this, he could easily disappear and start a new life with all his money and loot, and never ever break a single law again.
Nah, that'd be boring.
Especially when he could take his fortune and his suit and pursue other forms of thrill seeking.
And hey, why not try being a hero? After all, it would be a thrill of sorts. Maybe he could get his record wiped clean of his crimes and misdeeds too. Maybe he'd even get a sidekick. Or perhaps he'd just work with Arrowette more often. Who knew, he might even end up working with the Titans once. He could get along with Robin for once.
If Red X survived, he'd have the same chance he never knew he had every day he woke up. He'd have the chance to turn over a new leaf, a chance to give up being a thief.
Red X pondered over the thought as the energy gathered in the palm of his hand.
He thought.
Then he chuckled to himself.
"Pfft. Yeah, right. I'm Red X. I'm a thief!", he shouted triumphantly! Then he leaned forward and with his left hand inserted the special mouthpiece of the rebreather into a resalable slit in his mask just over the teeth of the skull on his face. He grasped the mouthpiece with his teeth and began breathing from it.
Then he looked back up confidently at the vial of Zynothium and fired the blast of energy from his hand.
The red energy launched from his hand and flew towards the vial of Zynothium like a screaming missile.
A bright flash of light and the sound of a small concussion followed as the blast of energy pierced the Zynothium vial and the Zynothium inside exploded like a miniature supernova.
KABLAM!
Red X was blown back against the far wall by the force of the blast, and the bright red light blinded him.
Outside, at the bottom of the bay, the explosion blew away pieces of rock and sent a cloud of smoke and dust spreading through the adjacent water.
Then water pored inside, increasing the atmospheric pressure inside the cavern. A small tsunami of water crashed into Red X and pounded him against the wall again. He quickly swam upwards above the raging water, almost hitting his head on the ceiling of the tunnel.
The air in the chamber escaped through the hole and emerged from the ocean floor as a huge bubble.
Once the chamber was filled with water, Red X kicked against the wall and swam desperately towards hole.
As he swam, the rocks around the hole fell loose and the hole widened. Red X had just reached the entrance of the hole when the rocks fell loose, and he desperately tried to dodge them.
Then he looked up just as a stray boulder fell and hit his head hard.
Then it was quiet.
It was very quiet.
…
Outside and above the hole, the bubble of air had quickly reached the surface of the bay.
And slowly, ever so slowly, Red X floated out of the hole and towards the water's surface above. His arms, legs, and cape dangled below him like the tentacles of a jellyfish.
Rebreather still in his mouth, he had escaped after all. Just like he said he would.
So he slowly floated upwards.
But his eyes were closed.
And he wasn't moving.
………………………………………………………………………………...
Author's Note: I'm sorry it took me so long! But I wanted to make sure I really gave my fans what they deserved.
Don't worry, there's still one more chapter left.
