If Cyborg thought the rain could not get harder, he was sorely mistaken. Just the time it took to get from Titans East to the area the police had reported, the wind and rain had become deafening. The abundant rain drops slammed into his metal body giving him the feeling that it was trying to run him into the asphalt below.
"You might want to consider walking," Speedy called through the comm as the athletic hero darted from rooftop to rooftop keeping up with the African American Titan. His red cloak a stark contrast to the forced gray the weather bathed the buildings in.
The sound of a gunshot peeled through the skyscrapers and immediately Cyborg's defense system tracked the acoustics and located the direction the sound had come from.
"On your right, Speedy, Gunshot came about a thousand feet down Hermitage Street." the man said landing on the rooftop of a six-story building between to larger structures.
"On it."
How Speedy moved up those buildings so well was a testament to the training he had received from Green Arrow. Focusing his attention more through his robotic eye, Cyborg zoomed in to down the street where his augmented reality locked on to multiple armed figures moving about the downtown stores.
"I got armed targets, Speedy, careful on your approach."
"Looters?"
The cybernetic man studied closely and frowned.
"Nah," Cyborg finally said. "They're movement is too professional. These aren't your average looters."
"Oh, that's great," Speedy groused in the speaker. "Let's throw professional mercenaries with the storm of the century."
"Yeah, Hang tight, buddy. Do some recon while I call for back up. We ain't ready to hit that."
With the confirmation, Cyborg mentally switched the channel but only received static in return.
'Damn, why now?'
A scream reached his ear, and he looked back towards the mercenaries and saw them dragging people out into the rain. Victor's gut clenched tight as he saw the scared women clutching their frightened and confused children. A man who he guessed was the husband or leader was trying to say something but received the butt of the assault rifle as the answer.
"You seeing this, Cy?" Speedy's voice came over the comm. It had taken on a steel tone.
"Yeah, and I can't raise the tower."
"We gotta do something, Cy."
"I know."
Where was Robin when it came to times like this? He was the strategy master and could use the limited resources available to defeat demon lords and crazed cultists without breaking a sweat. All he could think was a lot of guns, a lot of civilians, and a lot of ways to get maimed or killed. Yes, his armor could take a lot of the hits, but Speedy did not wear armor. He always claimed it slowed him down.
"The priority is the civilians. Distract and separate."
"Understood."
"Remember Bumblee's story about Havana last year?"
Speedy chuckled, and Cy grinned. The young archer knew what was coming. Issuing subvocal commands harnessed with mental procession, he shifted the energy in his batteries around while putting the backup on standby. The sonic cannons hummed to life causing his arms to start glowing blue while the nano-circuits and connections shifted and changed his arm into a high powered blaster. He had to make the noise just like Bumblebee did. He had to take the attention so Speedy could sneak in.
"On three. One, two, three!"
The jet pack roared to life, and Victor shot straight up and towards the mercenaries that were herding the families into a circle. The Titan did not like the look of that. The engine was purposefully loud, and on cue, they looked up to see him coming. That was when he began to rain blasts of sonic energy down around them churning the asphalt and spraying them with dirt and chunks of the street. He roared past as the automatic fire ripped at him. He heard a few rounds glance off his armor, but the internal computer registered no apparent damage.
Arching around again, the barrel rolled in time as an RPG screamed past him. If it were not for his defense systems overriding his human nature, he would have probably taken a lot of damage at that moment. Cyborg landed hard on the ground brought his combat arm up and fired a wave that took at least four the mercenaries off their feet. Singing through the downpour, arrows clinked into the street and exploded sending large bright flashes of light with thick smoke mixing with the rain.
Cyborg's infrared switched over, and he caught Speedy darting in and applying an expert amount of Kung Fu on three of the closest soldiers who did not see him coming. The problem was that they were very professional and already had begun to regroup and respond.
"Out of time, Speedy."
"Give me some cover, Cy!"
Switching his combat arm for a widespread attack, he began to rapid fire blasts causing the forming resistance to scramble out of the way and head for the sidewalk for cover. A round glanced off the side of Cyborg's head, and it threw him off balance and to the ground. He was lucky that it had hit the metal portion.
Rolling, he saw a tall, husky man in camouflage armor and mask charged him with P90 raised and firing. Cyborg rolled trying to get out of the way but was kicked in the head again by another soldier who had flanked him. Warning bells began to sound in his helmet as he tried to pull to his feet.
"Cy!" Speedy called in a panic.
"Get the civilians out of here!" Cyborg yelled as a boot struck him in the back and on to his knees.
Before Cyborg could force himself up, he felt the cold barrel of the gun put against his human head.
"They warned us about you children," the man's thick accent came from the mask, vocalized by what appeared to be a high tech system. "I was expecting a bit more out of you."
"Yeah, well, put down the gun and let's fight."
"As amusing as that would be, I'm on a schedule, and we don't need you interfering."
Cyborg gritted his teeth as he saw the man begin to depress the trigger. What Victor did not expect was him being taken off his feet by a flash of pink followed by an eruption of asphalt and pinkish haze.
"Hey, Ass-hat," a voice called out in the rain full of snark and fury. "If anyone's gonna unplug the robot, it's gonna be me."
Another mercenary went to open fire, but his gun jammed then exploded backward striking him in the face and dropping him to the ground. The female voice laughed with glee.
"Hex witch! Scatter!" the leader of the soldiers shouted but immediately the place exploded into combat. Rockets screamed in exploding around him, and he felt soft hands grab him by his neck and shove him out of the way. The blueberry perfume finally shocked him out of his haze.
"Jinx!" he shouted in surprise.
"Duh, you moron," she responded.
Jinx, the leader of the HIVE 5, stood in front of him, wearing the mustard yellow jumpsuit with subtle honeycomb pattern instead of her usual pink and purple dress. Her pink hair was still in their horn like pig tails, but they were struggling due to the downpour of rain. She had an M-16 thrown over her shoulder and a dark utility belt around her thin and shapely waist.
"What is..."
"No time to explain," She answered as she pivoted to the side gracefully and fired off a pink hex from her hand that caught a mercenary in the face.
"But you need to get out of here while you can. You're not ready to take them on." Jinx warned. On the other side of the street Cyborg made out Gizmo and his robotic spider legs blasting away with yellow energy while mammoth was cutting through the enemy lines with his fists.
"Noah Adank and the Havarie," Jinx growled shoving him. "Go and stay out of this area of town as best as you can."
"Jinx," Cyborg said grabbing her shoulder as she tried to walk away. Her pink catlike eyes locked on his own with a mixture of fury an impatience. "I don't understand what you're doing here. You guys are...thieves. What's with the heavy weapons."
"Listen genius," Jinx said shoving his hand off. "There is more going on in the world than you think. HIVE is under attack, and I'm not going to sit by and let them take us out. It's not your fight, Google, get out of here and let me deal with this our way."
"You heard her," Speedy's voice came across the speaker. "We need to clear cause I'm seeing at least three more HIVE teams and a lot of soldiers and they are converging here."
Jinx took off running, hexes flying and her lithe body dancing out of the way of gunfire. Victor stood there, torn between helping the woman he had befriended a long time ago or clearing out as she wanted. They were enemies and if the Havarie took them out, wasn't that a plus?
Cyborg turned and ran towards Speedy's comm signal.
"Get up high. We need to contact Robin before this gets worse. I think we have a lot more to deal with than evacuations and Typhoons."