A/N: I'm beginning to think of my retirement for this site. I mean, I'll still finish up any unfinished works of mine, but I don't know if I should keep making new fics. Ever since Teen Titans stopped, the fans and reviewers have gone down for Teen Titan fics, and I don't have any other shows that I'm passionate about. I also only have two years left of high school. Maybe when I graduate I'll retire from here. Sorry about my ranting. Please R&R!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans, Slade, or any of the Hive Five members.
Chapter 9
Three Titans burst into Titans Tower with tired sighs. They had lost a small battle with the Hive Five, and their pride was a little dented. It had been four against three, but the Titans still had the upper hand in the skirmish. It had sharply ended when Kid Wicked managed to vanish all of the members of his team into a portal, along with himself. He had gotten stronger lately.
Cyborg took out a can of Root Bear from the fridge and collapsed on the couch. "Man! Since when could that little mute kid do that?" he asked Starfire and Beast Boy over his shoulder.
"Yes, the silent one is more powerful than we expected," Starfire sighed.
"Yeah, you weren't the one fighting him," Beast Boy muttered. He took out a Coke and sat down next to Cyborg while saying, "He sent me through so many portals, I started to get dizzy!" Cyborg hid a smile as he had a few gulps of his drink.
"If they didn't have Kid Wicked on the team, they wouldn't even be a threat, really," Cyborg said with a nod.
"The Billy Numerous is kind of powerful," Starfire pointed out.
"Annoying as heck, too," Beast Boy added.
"You got that right," Cyborg said.
The three sat up as the door to the Tower opened again. Robin and Raven walked in and were covered from head to toe with globs of black goo. Robin was shaking his communicator with a frown planted on his face. Raven was picking off the globs on her blue cape with disgust.
"Problems?" Cyborg asked them with a small smile.
The two looked up at the other members silently for a second. "What are you three doing here?" Robin asked them. "I thought I told you to take down the Hive Five. Did it really take that short amount of time?" He glared at Raven as she picked off a huge glob dangling from his hair. She flicked it away and gave him a smirk.
"It was cut short," Cyborg answered with a sad sigh. "They got away."
"But we were kicking their butts!" Beast Boy said before Robin could say anything. "It would have been a sweet capture!"
"The boy you spoke of was not with them," Starfire said, answering Robin's soon to be question.
"That's what I predicted," Robin said. "Kid Wicked probably sent him to their hideout."
"Well that sucks," Beast Boy said. "We have no clue where that is."
"Not anymore," Robin said. "The only problem is that my communicator with Mammoth's tracker is not working because of the goo we ran into."
"No problem, Rob," Cyborg said while standing up. He snatched the communicator out of Robin's hand and cut off his protest by saying, "You and Raven shower while I fix it. By the time both of you are down here in clean clothes, we will know where the Hive Five's hideout is."
Journal 3: Part 3
Continuation…
The cage I was in was in the middle of a big room. The room had a giant computer screen at one end and different little computers scattered around the rest of it, sticking mostly to the walls. On the other side of the room was the entertainment center. A long couch sat across from a plasma TV screen with every kind of game station, games, ten disk DVD player, and DVD's pilled around it. It was any person's dream. Too bad most of those things had to be stolen.
I stood up, letting out a deep sigh. The place was quiet except for the low hum of the giant computer and the small click of the clock above one of the five doors around the room. The bars to my new prison had to be at least two inches thick. The length they were apart from each other was maybe two to three inches. I wasn't going to be able to slip through them this time.
I noticed that the base of the cage was bolted to the floor. I got to my hands and knees and stuck my hand out in between the bars. After a few minutes of trying to twist one of the bolts, I finally gave up with a growl of frustration. The thing wasn't going to budge, and I had no idea how long I had to stay in there or when the Hive Five was coming back.
Looking up, I spotted a wrench on a metal table ten yards away. I could use my powers to levitate it over to me! Focusing my whole attention on the tool, I tried to move it by bringing up some emotion. I felt some progress and could actually feel the tool, but nothing was happening to it. I tried harder but all I was able to do was make the thing bounce pathetically.
"What were the words she used?" I asked myself out loud. One of the Titans I was cloned after had a mantra to help her focus her energy sometimes. I groped around in my brain for her magic words that the kid on the bus had told me.
Suddenly it came.
Without any hesitation, I stuck my hand out at the wrench and shouted with excitement, "Azarath, Mentrion, Zinthos!"
I don't remember much after that. The tool had reacted so fast I had no control over it. I remember a blow to my head and then darkness. I think I actually knocked myself out with the wrench, which wasn't my finest moment. Don't laugh.
Waking up was the difficult part. Loud voices sounded around me, and I awoke with a wince. My head throbbed in pain. I made out the whole Hive Five team standing over me with either confusion or amusement on their faces.
"What did you do to him, Kid Wicked?" Gizmo yelled at the dark one. Kid Wicked only shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "Then what knocked him out?" I groaned and sat up straight. This only made me dizzy, and I had to close my eyes to block the pain out.
"Well, he's okay enough to show to Slade now, ain't he?" the division guy asked Gizmo.
"Yeah," Gizmo said with a bored sigh, "I guess so. Handcuff him just incase he tries to run away." His spider legs were gone now, I noticed, as he ran over to the main computer and typed in a few keys. I was pulled sharply to my feet by the giant. I was still dazed from that weird black out as I was handcuffed and dragged over to the screen.
"I see you have him," Slade's voice flooded into my ears suddenly. I snapped out of my stunned state and glared up at Slade on the computer screen. Uh! Just looking at the dude makes my blood boil and freeze at the same time. Without knowing at the time, my hands balled into fists. I had to grind the back of my teeth to keep myself from exploding on him.
"Yep," Gizmo said with a proud smile, "Just like you ordered. And he's in perfect condition."
"He doesn't even have dandruff!" the giant declared while yanking on my hair with a cruel smile.
"Hey!" I shouted at him while elbowing him in the side. My sudden move made the giant let go of me to nurse his bruised rib. Gizmo hissed some harsh words at the giant while the division guy snickered. Kid Wicked sighed, and I knew he had to be rolling his eyes.
"When will you be here to pick the whelp up?" Gizmo asked Slade.
"Tomorrow," Slade answered smoothly.
"What?" Division dude whined. "That means we will have to baby sit for hours!" He shoved my shoulder roughly, but I kept quiet, giving him a dark glare instead of speaking up. "That deserves more pay!"
"We agreed to the price of his capture long ago," Slade said to him calmly. "It will always be that price, which is already a bit expensive."
"Trying to milk it for all it's worth?" I asked the division guy. I gave him a spiteful smirk. "Go ahead and ask him what you asked me. Something about capturing more of ones like me, was it now?"
"I swear I'll gag you when it's my turn to watch over you if you don't shut up, kid!" the guy snarled back.
I turned back to Slade and said to him, mostly for my own benefit of my own knowing, "These guys need some extra cash. So how 'bout it, Slade? Any more of me you need to capture? These guys would love to be the ones to do your dirty work."
Slade narrowed his eye at me. He then completely ignored my question and told the others, "I'll be there tomorrow. Keep a sharp eye on him at all times." Did that mean there were more clones like me? I couldn't know for sure because he didn't answer me. But I got the hint that there could be. Image that!
"Don't worry," the giant said as he squeezed my shoulder with one of his massive hands, "He won't be escaping anytime soon." I fought down the urge to wince as his finders grinded into my bone.
"Good," Slade said with a firm nod. He then focused his eye back one me and said with a hint of slyness in his voice, "Goodnight, Gene." The computer screen then went black. For a second, I just stood there in shock. For the first time he hadn't called me boy. He had used my real name. Did that mean I was now worthy of his time? How come that wasn't very reassuring?
"Throw him back into the cage, Mammoth!" Gizmo ordered the giant. "You can take the first shift. And don't let him near anything that he could use as a weapon or a tool to get out of there. Slade's paying good money. I actually want this job done right for once."
My handcuffs were taken off before Mammoth shoved me back into my prison. I watched him with cold eyes as the giant walked around the living room, picking up anything that looked like I could use against him. He avoided my stare, which told me he had to be a bit scared by me. It was pretty amusing.
Mammoth didn't spend too much time looking around the area, but he managed to pick up the wrench and put it away where I couldn't see it. Even though he had told Slade they would keep a sharp eye on me, this guy fell asleep on the couch five minutes afterwards. His loud, train-like snore told me this. I guess my quiet intensity got to him.
With the big lug out of my way, I was free to do whatever. I spotted my backpack on the floor next to the couch, and the idea of using my powers again came to me. This time I was smart about it. That last time I had used way too much emotion without any thought. I needed to be focused.
So instead of shouting the words to Raven's mantra, I quietly uttered them while sticking my hand out of the cage. I felt the backpack become a part of me. The pack turned black and levitated in the air. I bit my lip and put more emotion into it. As if it were attached to strings like a puppet, my backpack smoothly flew over to me, and I grabbed it in mid air.
"Yes! It worked!" I whispered triumphantly to myself. Slowly my powers were starting to unfold. I knew that it would take me years of practicing to make them perfect, but I was enjoying the feeling of just using the basics.
For at least five hours I wrote to you guys in the notebook while Mammoth was sleeping. I had to hide the thing when it was Gizmo's and the division guy's turn to watch over me. They both kept awake for their five hours. I wrote some more when Gizmo decided to watch a movie, but I didn't get a lot done because he was constantly glancing over his shoulder at me. The division guy, who's name is Billy Numerous I later found out, looked over me like a hawk.
By the time Kid Wicked switched places with Billy, fifteen whole hours had passed. The clock above one of the doors told me it was six in the morning. My head was spinning around with so many thoughts I knew that I would never go to sleep even if I tried now. I was bored out of my mind, though! With them looking over me, I couldn't read or write to you guys. I was stuck there thinking about escape plans till they got so much out of hand and ridiculous, I had to stop thinking about escape all together. I needed entertainment.
Kid Wicked came in with a plate of food. He nodded to Billy, and they both switched places. The sight of the fresh BLT sandwich made my stomach remind me of its shortage of food. I glared at the teen, mad that he planned on eating the thing in front of me.
To my surprise, the quiet one placed the plate down beside my cage and then sat back on the stool Billy had been sitting on. My eyebrows rose in question. He urged me to eat it and that it was for me without a word and only making a few hand gestures.
I got to my feet and walked over to the side of the cage the food was at and sat down. I glanced up at Kid Wicked and muttered a small, "Thanks." I then quickly dug into my small meal like it was sent from Heaven. I hadn't eaten in hours! The sandwich was gone in less than a minute. The only thing I didn't eat was the plate and a few crumbs.
"Did you make that?" I asked Kid Wicked. He nodded, expressionlessly like always. "It was good." The thought that he had poisoned it fleeted through my brain. But the thought was quickly deleted. Why would they poison me? I wasn't going anywhere.
We sat there for a few more minutes in silence. I stared at the floor as he watched me. Then I finally heard a sigh come from him. It was the first self provoked emotion I got from him all day. I guess he was just as bored as I was at this point.
I smiled slightly up at him and said, "Yeah, I'm a bit boring, aren't I?" He shrugged. I tilted my head to the side and asked him randomly, "Can you talk?" This caught him off guard. His eyes went wide for a second. He then shook his head no. "Oh, sorry," I muttered. I would hate to be mute. How do they ever communicate? Well, this guy made it this far without too many problems. Maybe it wasn't so hard.
Another fifteen minutes passed without us saying anything to each other. I shifted to a position on my back and sighed loudly in complete dullness. "What do you guys do for entertainment around here?" I asked Kid Wicked.
The teen suddenly stood up and walked over to the couches. I watched him pick up a deck of cards and walk back to my cage. I sat back up with raised eyebrows. He sat down right outside my cage and dealt us both some cards.
"You're not like the others, aren't you?" I asked him. He glanced up at me with question on his face. I picked up my cards and explained myself. "I mean, you have, like, this…quiet knowledge going on with you. Without you, Robin would have kicked your whole team's butts back there. You're the only one who seems like he knows what he's doing."
This brought a small, knowing smile from the teen. He shook his head no and asked me if I had any twos by raising two of his fingers. Yeah, we were playing Go Fish. At least it was something to do. I gave him one of my cards. He then held up three fingers.
"Go fish," I muttered, suddenly loosing myself in thought. "Have any fives?" He gave me two of his cards and I had a pair. I stared at my cards and thought about what would happen in only a few more hours. Slade would come and take me away to some other dark hideout of his for maybe the rest of my life. I had avoided thoughts like this for so long, but now they were bombarding my mind. It was totally depressing.
I finally sighed and banged my head against a bar with despair. "Life's not fair," I mumbled mostly to myself than to Kid Wicked. "How come my life's so screwed up? The person who said the good guy always wins was on drugs. I'd rather die than go back with Slade."
As if listening to my thoughts, the whole room was suddenly clothed in darkness. I sat up with a gasp. The back up lights lit up the room in dim red. Kid Wicked was on his feet now, standing in a firm fighting stance. I got to my feet and searched the room for anyone. A creepy silence drifted into the giant room. My heart began to race in anticipation. The seconds dragged on slowly as Kid Wicked and I stood stock still.
"Crud!" Gizmo yelled while barging into the room suddenly. The rest of the team was behind him. "It's them!" They stationed themselves around the room, searching the darkness with keen eyes.
"Who?" I asked, not knowing if I should be scared or hopeful.
"The Titans!" Gizmo barked back, "Who else would it be?"
To Be Continued…
A/N: Sorry if the chapter was a little on the boring side. There wasn't that much action. But on a brighter note, I finally drew Gene. He came out rather well, actually. He kind of looks like Danny Phantom, though. I should scan the picture so you guys can see it. See you guys next week! Please review!