Not too many review for that chapter...I wonder why. Eh, never mind that! On with chapter two!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my PC.
Chapter Two: Shipwrecked
It was a quiet flight back to the tower. Not too many words were exchanged, unlike every other flight the Teen Titans took in their orange T Ship. Usually, the Comm. Channel would be overloaded with bothersome chit chat; Cyborg, talking about his car, or arguing with Robin about whatever, and Starfire and Beast Boy bragging and gloryfing their's and their team's action in combat, the latter mostly bragging about his own actions and later on being shot down by one of Raven's comments.
But not today
Today the channel was completly clear, aside from Starfire's occasional sobbing. The Titans sat motionless in their cockpits, the auto pilot was handling the flight. Cyborg, in the back seat, was still staring blankly into space, still pale.
I can't believe it's all over..." Someone whispered, Beast Boy. The others looked at him through their plexiglass shells. He was gloom, even his usually pointy ears were slumped. Robin opened his mouth, he wanted to tell his friend that it's not true, that they'll be back in action in a day- a week- a month
But he couldn't
Someone sobbed, Thinking it was Starfire, he naturally turned towards her to comfort her, it wan't her
Not this time.
Raven
She was sobbing quietly, sniffs that could be bearly heard and small silvery tears that rolled across her cheek
"We- - -" She sniffed "We killed a man"
"No" A voice came through everyone's headphones, Cyborg "I killed him" his voice sounded hollow
"He must've run away" Starfire added between one sob and another "We have seen him get away from perdicaments far worse than that"
"The Fire investigator said he didn't stand a chance" Robin finally said. Everyon'e attention was turned to him. He was there when they re-created the sequence of events
"He dodged the first four missiles, there were burn marks all over that ally. The fifth one got his front wheel, and when he was strugling to keep the bike balanced-"
"Sixth missile hits under his fuel tank. The thing blew up right between his legs" Cyborg completed. He read the report as well
"But perhaps there is still-" Starfire uttered, trying to hold on to a fragment of hope
"I saw the body" Robin said coldly, dropping a bombshell. Everyone went silent, as they should, Robin thought. The sight of the body at the morgue made him sick to his stomach.
"We're coming up on the tower" Beast Boy, who was quiet all through the flight said
"Better contact the Titans East"
"Good idea" Robin said, flipping some switches in his cockpit
"Titans East, come in" He said once "Titans Ea- Oh, hi Bumblebee. Yeah, like we settled, we're packing all of our bagage and out by six. Where are we staying? That doesn't matter, you can still contact us through the communicators. Cyborg will help you merge both our databases so you can keep track of what's happening in Steel City even if you're at the Tower. Yeah, thanks. Robin out"
He signed off, and looked at his reflection in the plexiglass canopy. He still looked the same, like he did yesterday, and the day before yestray.
He didn't look like a murderer
(S)
At the tower, things ran mechanically smooth. It took the titans about an hour to disassemble their rooms and group their belongings at the living room, but each of the titans was falling apart, in his or hers own way.
Robin was at the gym, as usual, turning his depression to anger, and using in to apply hurt to motionless dummies.
Right Hook
Side Kick
Double punch to the chest
Roundhouse
He stood there, fixing his breath. The dummy got back to its upright position, ready for another round of abuse.
(S)
Starfire was in Raven's room. On her bed, sobbing. Raven on the other hand, sat beside her, trying to bring comfort to her friend
"It'll be okay, Star, I know it would" She lied, she didn't know anything at that moment, nothing was concrete solid, everything could change at the flick of a wrist
"No, it will not, Raven" she said, whipping "We took a man's life! On Tamaran, someone who does this, is called 'Mizrabojian'. They stay on the planet for some time, but then they just...Disappear. Never to return" She buried her head in Raven's shoulder, crying warn tears. It didn't take too long before Raven joined her, her friend's tears were just too much for her to bear.
(S)
50 Caliber Armor Piercing rounds
S.T.X Anti Tank rockets
'Crow' Class five Heat Seeking Missiles
Type 7 photon cannons
Dual MP-50 repeating Pulse Lasers
S.T.A.R Labs S.C.W-93088e High Frequency Sonic Cannon
"Useless pieces of metal!" Cyborg yelled and tossed the tray in front of him aside. He used to put all his trust into his and his car's weapon systems. He designed them all to only stun. Never seriously hurt, or kill. Even tougher enemies like Cinderblock or Plasmus had warheads and voltage definition specifically made for them, so others won't get hurt
Like Red X did
He punched the wall out of rage, breaking a hole in it. He peered outside and saw the ocean, so large and blue. The deep blue, that's how and his dad used to call it. Now he realized why. It was the one time when he could look at the ocean and not out of an information scan on a recon mission of some sort
"Cone on it, the water's great" He remembered Red X saying just before he blew up a large metal catwalk, dropping the five titans into a huge tank of glue, then getting away with another makeshift bomb he planted earlier. It took days to peel that thing off and Beast Boy had to grow all his fuzz back
"Yup" he thought out loud. Red X was pretty cunning for one of the local theives. On the other hand, X was nothing but local. His convictions included warrents from Jump City, Gotham and Metropolis. The Interpol was so desprate it had one of the largest bounties ever on his head, alive of course and rumour had it that the Justice League held a personal grudge against the masked burgler
"Cyborg, come in, Cyborg!" his communiocator shouted. Robin
"I'm just about done here man" the Android said.
"Take you time" Robin replied. Maybe it was becuase they were five hours ahead of schedule, maybe because he wanted to let his friend pick up the broken pieces of his soul. Cyborg didn't detect any pity in his leader's voice, so he assumed it to be the first one
"Gotcha. Cyborg, out"
Shutting off his communicator, Cyborg lied on his vertical bed and fell asleep. He didn't go to sleep to often, just recharged himself. The last time he went to sleep was after they defeated Trigon. He felt tired after their victory dinner, when Starfire put strips of bacon on her head and pretended to be some kind of a monster, he didn't remember how she called it (A/N: Actually, I didn't). They laughed about it for days, even Raven did.
Usually, he'd just plug himself to the power cord and play online games all night long. Sometimes, an awakened Beast Boy would join him. This time it wasn't so. He plugged himself in, and closed his eyes
Dreaming of that day
(S)
Beast Boy was watching the city from a bird's eye view, the hawk sliced through clouds as it scanned the downtown section, past the buisness district and the southern end
The Tech district
He saw the large construction site near the ally X blew up in. The city workers had already cleaned the place up, you could walk through the place and be completley oblivious to what that had happened there three days ago
But he knew better than that
He tried to find ways to blame it on himself, he didn't want his friend to feel so said, he told Cyborg that he had fought X earlier that night
If he was only able to stop him
He flew back to the tower, his bags were already packed, he didn't really know where were they going, only Robin did, and he didn't want to tell them. Beast Boy had three days to figure it out, now he only had five hours left
"Could be Gotham, or maybe we'll just dig a big hole and disappear in it" The thought of the five of them cramped up in a tiny hole made Beast Boy laugh, it was good for him
He didn't even crack a joke in the past three days.
On the way to his room he heard crying from Raven's room, he wanted to enter, but felt that he shouldn't. Starfire was there too, he could hear her voice. He looked at his watch; the green digital display showed 15:59.
"Just two more hours" he thought with tears in his eyes
"Time to break that speed record at Wipeout 2k6"
(S)
(A/N: I request your forgiveness about the next bit. Apperantly I have little or no knowledge in Spanish, and so, I'd prefer if Mas Y Menos spoke very little, it's not that I hate them, I just don't know spanish)
The blue vessel was making its way towards Titans Tower at a fairly slow speed. Inside sat the five members of the Titans East. They had a reason for going so slow; they were forced to fit their ship with an extra large cargo hold to move their entire command center to Titans Tower
"I can't believe they're quitting" Bumblebee said. She never doubted any of the Titans' desicions, especially Robin's, but this one just didn't make sense
"Well I can" Said a teen with a long slick and dark hair, dark eyes and a white and blue wetsuit; Aqualad
"I mean, the Titans are supposed to be the defenders of justice, they swore on that when they set up their tower. And now they killed someone, how can you expect the city folk to trust them anymore?"
"How can you expect them to trust themselves anymore?" Speedy added. To him, the whole situation didn't make sense as well, but he had already accepted it. Mas and Menos nodded in agreement
"Titans West, we're coming up on the tower, open bay doors" Aqualad radioed in. In response, the large helipad on top of the tower opened up to reveal the inside of the landing bay; it was all colored silver, with several computers in the corners of the room. In the middle was a large black T. Painted on the floor. Speedy and Bumblebee steered the ship's thrusters so that it could land completly balanced. As it did, four vice like hands gripped the ship's engines, killing the burners.
The canopies opened up and the five members of the Titans East hopped out. The Teen Titans were already waiting for them, standing in a semicircle
"Glad you could make it" said Robin and shook Speedy's hand. He didn't even bother cracking a fake smile. Speedy replied with his usually firm handshake.
Bumblebee jumped on Cyborg, hugging him and crying. He in return hugged her back and whispered something in her ear, that made her stop crying, but she still held him tight.
Aqualad made his way to Beast Boy, the two exchanged glances, as they usually do
"So...How's everything, B?" the Atlantian asked
"Okay, I guess" he replied, optimistic as ever "We're all a little sad" Aqualad tried to find something to say, but couldn't. Instead, he slapped Beast Boy on the back of his head, that shook the boy a little
"Swimming contest?" he asked
"You bet!" Beast Boy replied. If there was something he could do to get away, it was to race Water Wart
In the far corner of the room, Raven and Starfire, along with Mas and Menos, were sitting on some tipped over crates and boxes. Both of them had already learned Spanish so they could communicate with the two speeding twins. They were trying to comfort the two girls in the best way they knew, but it wasn't enough
"We appriciate your concern, small spanish friends" Starfire said in Spanish "But the knowledge of what we have done is just too great"
"Healing takes time" Raven added, talking in English "So does emotional recovery" The two twins nodded, it had appeared that Raven and Starfire's uphappyness was contagious, as Mas and Menos had stopped smiling constantly, even they realized it was a serious moment
"But Starfire..." Mas started "He was a criminal, he caused suffering, he did damage, he wanted to-"
"Take care of number one" Robin, who overheard the conversation, cut him off "Red X wasn't a villian, he was just a theif, he didn't want to destroy the city, he was just selfish"
"Exactly my point" Raven said "As big of a threat as he posed, he didn't deserve it" Some crates were kicked over, Speedy shouted out of frustration
"SNAP OUT OF IT!" He yelled, scaring everyone, including Robin "So you made a mistake, it happens, to the best of us even, but that mistake is in the past! And it doesn't matter how much you're gonna sit and cry about it, at the end of the day, Red X is still gonna be dead, and you're gonna be alive. There is no need for you to end your life just becuase his ended"
"But they did not end..." Starfire sniffed "We took it from him" she once again burst into tears, Raven cpmforted her, so did Mas and Menos
"He was a theif, he knew the risks, just like you know the risk of being heros. Every job comes with a risk, especailly the line of work that Red X took"
"But we're heros. It's our job to keep the people of the city safe. Each and every one of them" Robin said coldly
"What about Slade? Would you weep over him if things were set in that way?" Speedy shot. Robin tried to answer him, but found no words, the archer sensed that
"Look" He said "All I'm saying is that you guys need some time off, get a grip on reality and get back to buisness. Know what I mean?" Robin gave him a meaningful look, and then broke a small smile
"Yeah" he replied "Good idea"
"What would you do without me?" Speedy said tauntingly. Robin shrugged and then jumped on top of the T Ship
"Titans!" he cried, every head was turned to him. At a moment's notice, Bumblebee gave Cyborg a quick kiss on the lips
"It's time to go"
(S)
"Pedro? Pedro! Hey, El Prezidente!" X cried. He was getting tired of standing in a cubical and awaiting his unknown captor to speak with him.
He wasn't much of a waiter.
It didn't take more than a minute for the screen to turn on after X made his demand. Once again, the darkened figure of the figure appeard. It turned towards X
"Ah, yes, my friend. Do you have an answer for me?"
"Yeah" X replied. Giving his mask a good yank to fix it on his face
"I'll do it"
"Excellant!" The figure hummed, sounding excited. X even expected it'll clap or something. A large flash of light engulfed the room, revealing it to be colored in a slivery white. The screen was actually deep blue now, the figure being bright yellow. Like someone flipped a Negative switch on the whole scene
"You will find the eqiupment you need for you mission to your left. The coordinates to your target are already locked into your Jet Ski-"
"Jet Ski?" X sounded amused. He strolled casually to the right end of the room to find something resembling a weapons rack; a couple of metal bars sticking out of the wall, holding several pieces of equipment inside them; a black shoulder mounted utility belt with six pockets, several smoke bombs and a single C4 charage, no remote through, it was on time delay, the red digits read 3.
"What? That's it? No laser watch? Ice glasses? Exploding pens? I'm insulted" X taunted. The figure chuckled.
"Open the first pocket, my firend, I think you will be just as pleased" it said. X rubbed his hands, they tingled with antcipation. He carefully opened the first compartment to pull out a small sheet of paper; a map of the starge unit and a red X on the map. He reached into the pocket again and pulled out a vile of a glowing red liquid which was smaller than a soda can.
"Xenothium" He let the word roll across his mouth. It meant so much to him
"Indeed. It's not too much, but it'll be enough to get you out of any...Unexpected complications" the figure replied slily. It alreted the theif.
"Got that right" X replied while strapping the belt on him, fastening its back buckle with a loud 'CLICK'
"One question though" He turned towards the screen
"Yes?"
"Where's the way out?" As a response, he heard the loud sound of pressurized air being released. A large golden airlock opened from behind him and revealed a large sea access hangar. It was already night, and the smell of salt water flushed the room. X inhaled deep, it smelled like freedom. He stepped inside the new space and there, docking safely, as if waiting for him, was the Jet Ski
"Beautiful" X mouthed. The whole thing was colored jet black, with two silver afterburners on the bottom. The sides were decorated by two thin red X's that went from the back to the front, and at the front, awaited him the white image of the skull, locked into a permanent glare
"Now we're talking" He said and hopped on. Turning the engine and blasting away full throttle, blowing away water and steam behind him. Back inside the room, behind the screen, the figure chuckled
"Indeed we are" it said. But the voice was no longer the same, the spanish accent was gone, the depth, the bass
It was a woman's voice
(S)
It was a foggy night at Jump City Bay. Grey and white coulds floated at sea level, blocking the vision for everyone who dared sailing in those dark waters. In the distance, the yellow image of the letter T glowed in the night. An occasional ship crossed once in a while, blowing its fog horn, alerting other ships of its presence, but that didn't stop the stealthy black Jet Ski from going towards his path.
"Never knew the open sea could be so much fun" X said, sarcasm clear in his distorted voice. For the past hour, he has been dodging the Coast Guard boats and some news helicopters, covering a recent shipwreck
Who cares.
One Quarter of a mile towards the target, X killed the afterburners. He switched his mask's vision to Full Spec. Allowing him to see into the unseen world of Infra Red and Lasers
"Not too cleaver, not that stupid either" He muttered. The sea was netter with a criss cross of red beams
Heat Sensors. He hated Heat Sesonors.
Sorting through the array of buttons on his dashboard, he found what he wishing for: Stealth mode. A quick push made the large machine as silent as a mouse, special pumps kicked in, pumping sea water into a circulation system near the engine, comparing the Jet Ski's temprature to that of the sea
"Perfect" he thought and advences through the now much foggy area of the bay. About five minutes later, he revieved a collision warning; he was very close to something, and whatever it was, it was BIG. Killing the engine and swithing his mask's vision mode to Night Vision, X made his way across the large vessel, the normally white eye slits in his mask now glowing Jade green. Finally finding what he was looking for; a ladder, he ditched the Jet Ski, tying it up to the first step in the ladder and climbing aboard the ship.
His first mistake.
(S)
"Bumblebee" Aqualad said, alerting his friend, who in that moment was busy sitting on the couch, fumbling with her B shaped weapons. She turned to him with a questoning "Hmmm?"
"A slinet alarm was tripped on a Wayne Enterprises storage facility, about twenty miles into the sea. They request we go and check it out"
"Alright!" She exclaimed and jumped out of her former position, grabbing her communicator
"Titans East, Trouble!"
(S)
Entering the facility wasn't half as hard as X thought. He took down a couple of armed guards, broke a couple of cameras, nothing worse than your avarage jewalry heist.
"Either Rent-A-Cops have taken over the maximum security buisness, or I'm getting better by the second" He thought. Ever so cocky. After a few minutes of walking in endless corridors, he found himself standing in front of a huge doorway, guarded by two, equivalently large, Titanium doors. He searched the sides for access panels, retinal scanners, anything, and go squat
He frowned and pulled out the C4 chrage, stapping it to the door
"And I was beginning to think I was gonna have some fun here" he muttered and ran to the end of the corridor
"Fire in the hole!" His mechanized voice cried
BOOM!!!
The whole ship rattled voilently as the explosion's shockwave tore through it. Needless to say that the two doors were no match for the large orange fireball and were now just smoldering memorials of their former selves.
X stepped inside the large storage unit, after one glace, he was almost drooling
The room was about the size of a shopping mall, filled with seemingly endless isles of equipment of all sorts, all with the Wp stamped all over them. Just a quarter, no a fifth of what was in there could set X for life, but that didn't bother him. He quickly undid the first compartment of his utility stap and unfolded the map, following it to his main objective, the thing Pedro sent him to recover. After a little stroll, he found it; a small black metallic box
"Heh, figures" He said "Big things always come in small black metallic packages". He slipped it into the sixth pocket of his starp and sealed it shut, quickly performing an inventory check by tapping each pocket. The Xenothium was still there in the first pocket, he could feel its warmth against his skin, like bottled fire. The second, third and fourth pockets contained the pins of three of his smoke grenades which he used while taking out the security cameras, the fifth one, one of his own makeshift Flashbangs and the sixth was now containing the box. Looking at the map, he turned to follow his main objective
His belt
He sorted through large racks of weapons and technology recovered by Robin from Slade, stealtch generators, remote bombs, the Chronotron Detonator and a small vile of blood marked "ReAgent" in black handwriting. Moving on to a next rack, he found it; resting at the top. Still black, not even a single mark of dust on it. His eyes shined when he held it. He could feel a slight chill running through his spine as his eyes went through the black and red inlining of the storage cells. He pressed on top of the first ones from each side of the buckle, which was now branded with a dull, powerless red X. The lids on the two cells popped open, and the burgler proceeded into slowly poring the unstable red liquid from the vile to the cells, distributing in to half, one to the left, and one to the right.
Once done, he clicked the cells shut, and strapped the belt on him. It still fitted. He pressed the X in his belt's buckle and the system kicked in. He could feel two pins connect from the buckle to the suit, pumping in the unstable energy into the system. The X buckle was now shining red, and X's mask was now displaying him a bright red notification that all weapons systems were back online, and that he had only fifteen percent of the belt's Xenothium capacity filled
"Like Perdro said, only good for a short combat" He thought and turned to leave.
Footsteps. He wasn't alone
"Come on, whoever's in here can't be too far" He heard a voice. It was a girl, but not a Teen Titan, he didn't recognize her voice. He couldn't risk activating his cloaking device, he could run out of power. He decided to sneak past whoever was there in the old fashion way.
He quickly ducked down and walked slowly, quietly. Passing numerous weapons racks and starnge devices, including something that seemed to him like a souped up remote control
"Gotta be one heck of a story behind this one" He thought and kept creeping ahead, not aware that his cape was trapped under a large crate.
He knocked it over
"Over there! You, Freeze!" he quickly stood up and turned around. At the end of the dark isle stood, no, Flew, a dark girl with tight black leather pants, a midriff revealing yellow-black stripes shirt, large lips, big brown eyes, two strange looking balls of hair on top her head
"Bee wings? That's just tacky" He thought. The girl was in utter shock at the sight of him, he used that and sprinted towards her, leaping into a jump kick. She snapped back into reality, picking up her B guns and zapping two electric rays in his directions
He disappeared
She didn't even have time to react before he reappeared, behind her, in mid air, his cape swinging in the air. The momentum carries his foot into the back of her neck, knoking her out and leaving an X shaped bruise. She was stopped cold.
"You!" He heard a voice. He turned around and saw the most horrifying thing that he had ever layed eyes on; A tidal wave was coming right at him, destroing the isle he was standing in. What's scarier was that there was a young man in a wetsuit, riding it. He jumped left and teleported, dodging the wave at the nick of time. He landed on a differant floor, fixing his breath, he suddly saw a flash of white and red coming at him. He didn't even have time to resond before the flash went between his legs and pulled him down to the floor. He knocked his chin on the floor and rubbed in, as the flash was coming at him again
"Fool me twice? Don't think so" He mocked and slapped his palm against the floor. A red line passed under the flash as the floor tore open
Allowing two screaming spanish boys to fall down
"Easy enough" He said and got up when he heared the roar of the water again. He turned around and saw Surfer Boy coming at him again. His right palm produced a single X which he threw in that direciton. Aqualad did not notice the small red projectile entering the wave, what he did notice was the immense electric shock that he took. Knocking him out and thus bringing the wave down to spill all over the floor, spreading water all around.
"What a kick off" X said and chuckled. He gave the order for a power check, the reading showed nine percent.
"I'm good to go on another one of those if I want to" He bragged, heading towards the exit. Where he met his last opponent. The guy was a Robin wonnabe. Same mask, but red dressing instead of the christmas outfit, and a bow with a quiver of arrows
"Y..You...I thought you were DEAD!" He exclaimed and hopelessly tried to load an arrow into his bow.
"Fear's definatly a factor for him" X thought. He bolted towards the shocked fighter and leaped into the air, aiming a dive kick
"Think again"
End Chapter two! Different Summary to attract more people! Next chapter's due next week! Later dudes!
Oh! Review please!