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Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans and/or any of their related merchendise. Also, I don't own Metallica's Fuel.
Chapter Three: Enter Strike Force.
It started by a slight movement of a finger, then, another joined the first, sonly enough, a fist was clutched, resting on the cold metal surface of the storage unit. The fist gave enough leverage for the young, agile body to lift itself to an upright sitting position.
The girl groaned as a ninty pound hammer of headache was beating on her head continuously, delivering a pulsing sensation that could be definatly defined as a splitting headache. She rubbed the back of her neck sofly, it hurt.
The bruise was still fresh
"If there's one thing you can't trust the Teen Titans to do..." He headache spoke as she rubbed the back of her neck "Is to make sure that what they take out stays out" She tried getting up, but the room was spinning WAY too fast for her to acomplish that.
She continued sitting still, staring at the large dark metallic racks that held Wayne Enterprises utmost secret inventions. Lucky for her that X didn't go after any of them, she couldn't tell which of those devices was a high tech toaster and which was an atomic bomb.
Finally able to pick herself up, she started walking towards where she remembered the exit was. On her way, she heard water dripping slowly; Aqualad can't be too far. Speeding up, she started walking faster towards the sound, her heels making loud 'Click' noises as they thump across the cold metal floor. Going in and between large metal isles, she noticed that her boots were sunk into a foot high puddle of water. She started running, stress was building up inside her; Aqualad could be seriously hurt, or worse. As she was running, she pulled out her communicator and tried to reach Speedy, Mas and Menos, there was no response, which only made her heart beat faster. She heard a groan to her left, behind the isle
"Aqualad!" she cried as she grabbed the outer pole of the isle and used to to swing to the other side, to find her friend lying on the floor, rubbing his head. She jumped beside him and knelt down, wanting to take a better look at him
"Please. Don't scream" he muttered "If there's something I DON'T like about water, it's the fact that they're such a good conduct"
"He got you too, huh?" she said sofly while helping her friend reach a sitting position. He nodded
"He's much more than what Robin credited him for" the Atlantian continued "He's fast, smart and fearless" he chuckled "I mean, why else would he attack you head on?" Bumblebee laughed. It hurt a bit
"We better get going and find Speedy and the twins" she said while getting up, Aqualad was quick to follow, walking beside her deeper into the huge structure
"Better contact the Titans, Lad" Bumblebee suddanly said
"We need to tell them X is back"
(S)
"Oh man, WHAT. A. RIDE!" X radioed. He almost forgot what it's like to fight superheros instead of running away from them. He took his Jet Ski from a wild joyride all over the Jump City bay. He used waves as ramps and was trying to reach higher and higher to the heavens with the nimble machine, cutting through smaller walls of water and riding the big ones, jumping high into the air. At the corner of his eye, he spottrd a cluster of lights, red and blue; a freighter. He steered his Jet Ski towards it, turning on the Afterburners on his vehicle and blasting towards the large ship. He was going faster and faster, closing on the huge vessel, the roar of the engine was loud enough to hide his own scream of excitement.
"YEEEEEEEEEEEHAW!"
He caught the edge of a large wave and was sent flying above the freighter. Scared personnel were watching him with awe as his Jet Ski was spinning around itself. Up where X was, things were going in Slow Motion; he glanced at the people below, at the numerous structures on the deck of the ship, shining in the night and at the city's skyline, glowing in the darkness like milions of lightbulbs. The young theif switched his weight to the right, stopping the Jet Ski from spinning and landing it in the sea, erecting a large splash of water as he did and continued towards the darkness
(S)
"...Potentially dangerous theif. He calls himself Red X. Rumour has it that he's going for the second piece of the device"
"This could pose a threat to the Strike Force"
"We've seen him in action aboard the Wayne ship. The chap wasn't impressive what so ever"
"Still. If he gets that second piece...He might try to take the Strike Force out"
"Is he even aware of our presence? I mean, he did just JUMP over our command center"
"Silver. As your commanding officer, I order you to shut up"
"Yes sir"
"Fuel? Your piece of opinion?"
"We should contact Kad and see what she says"
"Whoa. Fuel saying something other than BURN! Now I'm impressed"
"Silver..."
"Yes sir"
"I agree with Fuel. We should contact Kad and see what she has to say"
"Same goes for me"
"It's made then. Sorry Silver, you're out-voted four to one"
"What? Come on! Boom-Boom, Blank!"
"Don't even try it, Silver Fang"
"Alright. Sir"
(S)
It was a fairly nice retreat. If you're in to all those 'Bigger-Than-Life-Itself' manner types. The house was huge, like a palace. With WAY more rooms that the Tower. Heck, it took Beast Boy about two hours to count all of them. It wasn't as far away from the city as the other titans though; an hour or two on the T-Car, on the busiest hour of the day. People stared at the five from their cars' windows, a schoolbus filled with cheerleaders and football players actually stopped traffic to preform in front of the team. They enjoyed the gesture, even Raven did, it was nice to see people think kindly of them
"We're in a real hurry. Seriously, there'll be a time for that later" Robin tried to say while fending off hordes of screaming girls. He did enjoy the attention, just as any guy would, only he hid it, unlike Beast Boy who was signing autographs at an inhuman speed
"Come on girls. Really, there's pleanty of B to go around" He said, but when he saw the meaningful look the reast of his team gave him, he silenced himself and got back to the car, not wanting to draw anymore attention.
Right now, the green Changeling was ideling in one of the main chambers, which was the size of the Titans' living room. It was a huge white room, with a real fireplace that burnt in crispy orange flames, spreading it's light all across the room. Beast Boy looked at the flames with a certain awe. After all, as much as he was a 'Boy', the 'Beast' in him still came included with the primal feal of fire, that fear made him stare at the flames with admirition, mixed with some caution.
He got tired of sitting still pretty quick and left the room, leaving through two large wooden doors with golden knobs and amazing craftswork on the wood, resembling two lions guarding the letter 'W', he climbed up a staircase into Raven's room. The first thing she did was to unpack, so that her new room looked like her old room in many ways; the dark curtains, the bookcaes, the scary looking puppats and dolls, and to top it all off; her large velvet bed. He entered her room and took a quick look around. She was sleeping sound, her head tilted sideways, breathing slowly as she did. He liked watching her sleep, it calmed him down for some reason.
Knock, knock
Raven groaned and buried her head in the pillow
"Raven?" Came a girl's voice through the half opened door, Starfire. Beast Boy shushed her and tip toed out out the room, he slowly closed the door behind him, putting the room back to it's orignal state of darkness
"Beast Boy, I need to speak with Raven, it is rather urgent" Starfire said and tried to get past him back into the room
"She's trying to sleep, Star!" the green boy exclaimed queitly. Starfire frowned
"Oh, I know" she said, sulking "But the thing that I must discuss with her, is very important, I must talk to her about it"
"Well tell it to me!" He said, smiling widely. Star gave gim an odd look
"I'm afraid I cannot. It is related to 'the Stuff of Girls'" Beast Boy raised an eyebrow
"Is it something higenic?" He asked cautiously. She shook her head "Something physical?" Another no
"Good!" he cried "Then you can tell me all about it while we sit in front of the fire!" he said while pulling her down the stairs with him. The reentered the main chamber and sat down on a large, colorful, soft carpet placed on the floor, the fire crackled in front of them with tiny red and orange sparks that almost seemed to be cracking in a certain rhythem
"So what's the trouble?" the Changeling asked. Starfire looked down on the rug and ran her hands through it
"Well, you see" she started "Normally Raven would just know what is wrong with me...As she can read minds" Beast Boy raised his eyebrow
"Then it's not a girl thing, it's a mind reader's thing" he stated. Starfire unwilingly nodded, the boy laughed
"As far as I can tell, you can, err, speak for yourself! So, uh, spill!" He gestured his hands towards her. That's when he noticed she wasn't even looking at him, her head was scanning the room, and she was sniffing
"Hey, star, STAR!" he yelled, annoyed. "Are you even listening to me?" she lost her focus and looked at him
"Aren't you smelling it?" she asked, with a puzzled expression on her face
"Smell what?"
"Gasoline"
(S)
"WHAT! HOW? WHEN?" Robin yelled. His head was red hot from rage, nostrails flaring, heart beating at sixty miled per hour. The samll yellow device in hand was about the desintigrate from the pressure he was applying on it. He paced through the room and hit random things with his free hand, knocking them to the ground and breaking them. On the floor were fragments of china and porcelan, monuments of his frenzy
"That's what we're trying to find out" Bumblebee, on the other side of the communicator said. She never knew why Beast Boy and Cyborg oftenly called Robin Spaz, behind his back, of course. Now she was starting to see it
"Well, maybe you fought a copycat, or one of Slade's robots, or- " Robin tried. Hopefully trying to prove he didn't make the biggest mistake of his life when he adressed the press two days ago. Bumblebee secured the icebag to the back of her head and reloacted on the large chair, trying to make it a bit more comfortable
"Trust me, Robin. That wasn't a copycat. He took us all down in less than two minutes. I can't even realize how did you stop him!" she replied, annoyed. Before that encounter, she had full trust in herself and her team's ability, but after that single battle with Red X, it all crumbled. It was then that she actually realized how weak is her team in comparrison to the Teen Titans. Robin noticed that
"Don't blame yourself" He said, taking her out of her shock. She gave him an odd look
"I'm not?" she said, but at the same time thought "How could he see I'm blaiming myself?"
"Come on, Bee. I've spent years studying people's faces to tell if they're lying during investigations. Your face has guilt written all over it" He paused to take a deep breath, her face softened
"Red X was planned for blitz battles in close quarters, both weapon-wise and psychologically; the looks of the suit is meant to shock and give the fighter a slight advantage. The hard hit Xenothium weapon system is meant to neutralize or stun a target in a couple of seconds, and to top it all off..." he bit his lip, remembering how he had argued with himself about installing the last two systems
"The cloaking and teleportation systems. For a quick getaway, or a quicker sneak attack"
"Tell me about it" she replied, feeling her throbbing neck "But you were able to beat him!" she attacked again
"On our third try" he said coldly. "And we continued to fight him even after that. Red X, whoever he is, is very resourceful" He paused "There's one thing I don't get though" That woke her up. A chance to work in tight cooperation
"What's that?" she asked
"Cyborg and I profiled X's targets. He usually goes for easy marks that pay off big; jewelary, diamonds, that sort of thing. Something you can ditch fast and cash in even quicker. See?" she nodded
"What was he looking for at the storage ship, then?" Robin asked, not knowing if it was a retorical question, Bee answered
"His belt, duh" but Robin saw that coming; he turned on the split-screen mode on his communicator
"Cyborg. Come in, Cyborg" he said. The android quickly replied
"I need you to pull me out the cargo manifest of C.V-29087 Dash 23 from three days ago, and a recent inventory list"
"Why?" Cyborg answered. His voice again, hollow. Hearing that almost crushed Bumblebee's heart, hearing her friend so drepressed
"It's not like we're going back any time soon"
"Oh yes we are" Robin replied. Cyborg's eye opened with surprise "Red X isn't dead, bro. You didn't kill him"
"WHAT!" Cyborg yelled. Nearly blowing the Boy Wonder's ear out
"Bumblebee will fill you in later. But I need those lists A.S.A.P"
"Umm, sure, right away man!" Cyborg replied. His voice was different, resembling his former joyful tune. That alone put the stinger back in Bumblebee, seeing how he recovered so quickly.
"Alright, I got it" Cyborg said. His usually red eye had now two small blue sqares it it, but inside the Android's head, they were mega sized versions of the forms Robin requested
"Good. Now compare between the two and tell me what's missing" he leader said. Cyborg got to it, it didn't take his hyper fast CPU more than half a second the sort between the thousands of items on the list and find the missing one
"An uncharted item marked E Dash 453 Slash X-"
"That's gotta be the belt. What else?" He said. It alerted Cyborg. Did X get his belt back?
"Err, a core module for a V.G-900570pw" Cyborg paused "Robin, that's one of the pieces needed to build an operational prototype for a ViperClaw II Particle Weapon"
"What's that?"
"To put in short terms, it's an upgraded version of the weapon Slade wanted you to use on us when you were his apprentice" Robin bit his lip. He remembered how devastating was that weapon when he tried it during his fight with the titans. He nearly blew the whole rooftop and wounded his friends when the shot bearly passed near them
"Wait—What's this apprentice talk?" Bumblebee stepped in
"Cyborg will fill you in later" Robin said, slightly irritated, or was he worried? "I think it's pretty clear that whatever X is doing, he's not doing it alone"
"You think someone faked his death?" Bumblebee asked
"Possibly" Cyborg replied "What better way is there to get us off the best theif around than to make him die? Then later on use him to steal the ViperClaw II for who knows what purpeses"
"Then we gotta stop him!" The leader of the Titans East said
"No" Both Cyborg and Bee gave the Boy Wonder an odd look
"What do you mean no?" they both asked. Robin grinned
"For some months now, a group of super powered theives is knocking off major tech companies, taking only high tech weapons that worth almost zero in the arms market, since they're just prototypes. Those theives used to only go for cash targets, like X did"
"So you think there's a connection between those guys and X? Maybe someone who's pulling the strings?" Cyborg asked
"Exactly, and like I know X, it won't take him too long to see that he's just a tool in this guy's hands-"
"And that's when we jump in!" Bumblebee exclaimed. Robin smiled
"Bingo. Both Titans teams will attack. We'll take down X, that other theif team and the puppet master in one swift blow" He said and slammed his fist against the table
"Three birds with one stone, I like it!" Bumblebee announced.
"Good" Cyborg told her "Now go update the rest of the Titans East. We'll do the same here"
(S)
Twenty Minutes ago...
"Kad. I mean, ma'am. We need to talk to you, it's urgent"
"You got my attention, Striker. What is it?"
"The info you sent us about two weeks ago, about Red X. We've had a sighting"
"When?"
"About thirty six hours ago, ma'am. Two hours before our designated deployment aboard the Wayne ship"
"And the module?"
"He took it" There was a sigh
"Then you'd better beat him to the second piece. You have the coordinated, correct?"
"Yes ma'am. We're good to go tonight"
"Not tonight, Striker. You won't be able to do it with a four people crew"
"Four? Ma'am, we're five"
"Call up Fuel. I have a job for him"
"Yes ma'am. Strike Force. Out"
(S)
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
"STARFIRE!" Robin raced out his room down the stair where he came across Raven, who was recently awaken from her sleep, and Cyborg who, like him, had just finished talking to bumblebee. As they ran towards the direction of the scream and reached the main chamber, where Beast Boy and the Tamaranian princess were talking; the wooden doors were flaming. Robin tried to open the door, but the knob was red hot, he quickly drew his hands away and shook them in pain, it sizzled.
"The inside temprature is insane!" Cyborg cried and kicked the door down.
It was an Inferno
The whole parameter of the room was filled with flames that erected from the ground to the ceiling, eating away at drapes, color and windows, causing the glass to explode. In the center, stood Beast Boy and Starfire, the first completely terrified and the latter crying her lungs out for help.
"I'm coming, Star!" Robin cried and bombed a way in using his Liquid Nitro discs. He and Raven slid in during the few seconds in which the ice held it's own
But the flames came again, bursting from within the water
"They're not natural! Something's causing them!" Cyborg cried while trying to spray water all over the flames
"You got that RIGHT!" A voice boomed. Out of the fire place, a figure stepped. It was a man, dressed entirely in black; Black cargo pants, a black shirt covered by a foot long black trench coat that hid two black boots with steel tips and a pair of black sunglasses that couldn't hide the two small red glowing eyes. He ran in an amazing speed around Beast Boy and Starfire, trapping them in a circle of flames, which only made the latter screm louder
"A word of caution" He said. His voice was raspy, and sounded like his own throat was on fire
"Stay away from what happened aboard the Wayne vessel. Unless you want me to drop by for another social call" With that, his body seemed to catch fire; he completley burst into flames and was sucked, along with all the other flames in the room, back into the fireplace. The three superheros ran towards their friends and grabbed them. Beast Boy passed out into Raven's hands. Starfire couldn't stop crying
"So you think that was one of them? Of those super theives?" Cyborg asked. Robin looked at him while holding Starfire close
"They have a name now" he looked at a red hot smoldering inscription left on a huge metal sculpture that stood in one of the room's corners
"Strike Force"
------------S---------
Author Notes: Hell yeah! I got a review! Once again thanks, and I hope this chapter pleases you as well! Keep on reading and reviewing! Bye bye!