Okay here it is, just as I promised; the second half of Part 2. As soon as this chapter is done, then the exciting stuff starts to happen, for we are moving on to 'Betrayal'! Please enjoy. Please excuse any spelling and grammer mistakes.
And several thanks to Heathen Requiem, who is my very first reviewer! This is for you.
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Walking down the tunnel for about an hour was frustrating, and everyone was ready to let Crow take them to their destination, or have Beast Babe turn into a dinosaur and let them sit on her back the whole way, but they were both refusing, and to make matters worse, Terrance had to pick a fit with Crow three quarters of the way through, and that just about did it.
'Hey, I'm not kidding! I would never allow anyone to get hurt. They're my friends too,' he was saying, and she rolled her eyes.
'Yeah, whatever Bastard,' she grumbled, and he resisted the temptation of smacking her then and there.
'Okay, listen here, I'm sorry that you don't trust anything I do – or anyone else for that matter - but if I'm gunna be a part of this all girls team, then we gotta get along if you like it or not,' he said in an annoyed tone, and she turned sharply and faced him, an extremely angry look on her face.
'You're not part of this team; not yet. And if you ever talk to me like that again, or if you even think of hurting my friends, then I'll make sure you never will be. Next time I say something's too dangerous, then take my fuckin' word for it!' She raised her arm and was about to smack the living daylights out of him when Beast Babe caught her hand and shoved her away.
'Oh calm down you two; you're acting like a bunch of immature children,' she said seriously, and Crow ran forward, trying not to let her anger catch up with her.
'Uh, why is she such a bitch?' Terrance asked Beast Babe as she hooked arms with him.
'Ah, she's always bitchy; in fact, she's pretty nice today. She just got off her rag. Don't worry. Ya just gotta give her time to get used to you. Heh, if I hadn't had known her my whole life, she'd still be getting used to me,' she replied with a laugh, and they ran forward to catch up with the others.
They walked for another ten minutes before coming to a large and round dead-end. Grumbling, Sparky took out her communicator and changed the screen to a small satellite.
'Damn dead-end,' she swore, and she searched for another way to find Slade. Holding her communicator near the wall, a fast bleeping sound was heard, and Gypsie walked over beside her. Muttering a spell, an extremely light purple aura appeared around the chakra on her forehead, and floated into the wall. She stood there for a moment, her eyes glowing her colour, before the aura came back and she turned to Sparky.
'Slade's down there. I could sense mechanics and his heartbeat,' she said, and Terrance stepped away from the wall. He looked around, thankful that no one noticed how fast his breathing had gotten.
Don't say anything, he thought again, and Beast Babe spoke up.
'Well, I think that we should go down there and get him,' she said seriously, and elbowed Terrance in the arm. He nodded, and raised his arms in front of him, his power ready to go through the solid stone wall. Suddenly, the ground shook ferociously, and Terrance stumbled over to Crow and bumped into her. She glared at him, and he frowned.
'Are you gunna give me that look everytime something bad happens?' he asked angrily, and was knocked off his feet as three large mechanical worm erupted from the ground, their pointy faces aimed right at them. 'Oh shit!' he exclaimed, and they tunneled in the same direction away from them.
'Hey you dumbasses! The good guys are right friggin' here!' Beast Babe yelled at the worms as they tunneled away, and she kicked the ground. 'Man, are they blind or somethin', 'cause they sure as hell didn't see us.'
'I do not think that we are their target,' Moonfire said as she helped Terrance up, careful to pull up her shirt as she did so.
'Then what is their target?' Crow asked, and Sparky banged her fists against the wall.
'I should know this! He did the exact same thing in Jump City; why does the answer keep slipping from my reach?' she yelled, and everyone backed away. 'Sorry. Look, Gypsie, Beast Babe, and Moonfire, I want you three to go after those blasted worms. Crow and Terrance, we're going after the bastard,' Sparky said, and the three flew off.
'Look, I can tunnel through this on my own, and probably so can you. We don't need her,' Terrance growled, and Sparky shook her head.
'No. I have to make sure we stay on course, and Crow is just as good as moving rocks as you. To get to Slade, I'm gunna need you both.'
'That's the dumbest excuse I've ever heard,' Crow muttered, and Sparky got the coordinates.
'Forty degrees down, six hundred meters deep,' she said, and the two readied their powers.
'Got it,' they said together, and then frowned.
'Stop copying me,' he said, and she laughed.
'Yeah, like I would want to copy you,' Crow replied sourly, and he fought the urge to use his powers on her.
Just be patient; it'll all pay off in the end, he thought as they tore through the rocks, and a small voice filled his head. But do you really wanna do this?
Somewhere where the worms were, the other girls were chasing them, using their powers to try and stop them, and just when they thought that they finally might stop, they tunneled up in three different directions, leaving the three stunned girls standing around.
'I'll take that one,' Gypsie said, pointing to the lowest tunnel, and they nodded. Moonfire flew up into the highest tunnel, and Beast Babe changed into a cheetah to chase the middle one. They ran off down their tunnel, doing all they could to stop the blasted things.
'God, I'm doing all I can to stop the blasted thing!' Gypsie yelled as she flew after her worm. Groaning as she readied her powers, an extremely light purple aura flew from the chakra on her forehead, and she was instantly attached to the worm, clinging on for her life. 'Stop damn you!' she yelled, and the worm gave a yell and tunneled down, dragging her along with it. Screaming and spitting out mouthfuls of rocks, Gypsie turned off her powers and fell backward, a shield forming around her so she wouldn't get hurt. Grumbling and groaning as she stood up, Gypsie lifted into the air and flew after the now very annoying worm.
Somewhere chasing her worm, Moonfire shot several starbolts at her own worm until finally getting annoyed and shooting a steady beam of eyebeams, melting the rock around the worm's behind. It got stuck, and happily and triumphantly, she flew forward and kicked his straight in the butt. Realizing that this was a bad idea as the worm wriggled free and dug on upwards, she shot it a rude hand gesture and flew on.
Still changed as a cheetah, the now angry Beast Babe ran quickly after her own worm, cursing in her mind as it moved farther away from her. Groaning as it curved, she flew up into the air and clung onto its back, quickly changing back into herself, using her powers to hang on. 'Oh no oh no oh no!' she yelled out worriedly as she slipped off and rolled backwards, tumbling and tumbling as the worm moved on. 'The next time a see a worm, I'm gunna smash the damn thing to Kingdom come!' she shouted slowly and loudly, and was soon off again, this time, with a vengeance.
Back with the others, thoughts kept running through Terrance's head, and he desperately tried to block them out as he and Crow smashed through the last piece of rock and saw in surprise that they were standing in an opening of Slade's little project. It was a huge underground expanse whose walls were lined with steel members. Sitting at its center is a cylindrical computer console, with keyboards spaced at regular intervals around its perimeter. A broad beam of green light emanates upward from the middle of this rig and generates a holographic image. They are in a truly gargantuan vertical shaft; the computer stands on a platform that has walkways connecting it to the walls, and the hologram is an image of the Tower and its island. Hearing a whirring noise, they look up where three worms are seen—joined to form a circle, oriented horizontally and spinning near the ceiling As the girls observed the area, another thought flashed through his mind, and his powers switched on and off quickly.
Stop, just stop it. Just act normal, he thought, and Crow glanced quickly at him, her suspicions rising.
Back in the tunnels, Gypsie was on her last nerve. She flew quickly up to the worm and clung onto its back, rocks flying past as it scrapped around in the rocky earth. She got her powers ready and started to go inside the worm to stop it when a large rock rolled her way and smashed her in the face, causing her to lose her grip and fall backwards. Cursing as she put up another shield, she looked up and used her powers to see through the rocks. Her eyes glowed her colour, and the aura on her chakra shot through the rocks, finding all the worms.
'Girls,' she shouted as she pulled out her communicator. 'The worms are headed for the surface. Whatever their target is, they're gunna do all they can to bring it down; I know it.' After these last words, she flew after the worm until each of them broke the surface, the worms breaking in a circle. They flew up, connecting to each other just like the formation just below them. As they flew around, the girls saw in fear that they were circling above their tower. 'On no,' she whispered, and yanked out her communicator. 'Sparky! Holy hell girl, the worms are going to attack our home!' she said worriedly, and Sparky's image looked sadly down.
'I know,' she replied silently, and Gypsie sensed her hurt. 'I remember now. Slade tried this on the Titans, but they knew what to do. Robin told me nothing of how they stopped it. And without a clue, our home is going down.'
'No! We need to try anyway!' Terrance yelled, and grabbed the communicator from the sad girl's hand. 'You three, try and take down those goddamn worms! We'll take care of the controls! Now go!' he yelled seriously, and turned off the gadget. Turning to the two, Crow saw that his face no longer held a shade of confusion and dread. It now held a deep shade of seriousness and anger. But even though he looked it, he didn't really feel it, and he knew Crow knew.
'So, what are we going to do?' Sparky asked as she collected herself, and Terrance pulled a pair of goggles out of his pocket and pulled them on.
'While I try to hack into the computer, you two can fly up and hit the worms with all you got. Now go!' Sparky rose up into the air and started zapping the worms with large bolts of lighting, but instead of joining her, Crow stayed next to Terrance and observed him for a while before speaking harshly.
'You're not fooling me,' she murmured, and he turned to face her.
'What?' he asked, his voice sounding a little shaky. Then he frowned. 'Look, I don't care of you're on your rag or not, I want you to stay out of my way as I take of the controls.' He grinned cruelly as shock covered her face, and he ran towards the controls. The holographic Tower image, now with a cylinder marked around it and a flashing red arrow pointing downward from the bottom end to show the structure's intended movement showed what the worms were going to do, and he smiled secretly. He then looked down and started typing. Crow came up beside him and gasped at what he was doing.
'No! Do you have any idea as to what the hell you're doing!' she screamed, and pushed him away, typing madly as he stumbled behind her. She typed something and the worms started to slow, and he swore in his mind. He then pushed a small button on his belt, and the area began to shake. Plastering a shocked expression on his face, he pretended to fall and high above them, Sparky screamed. They looked up to find that three lasers – one on each worm – had begun to blast through the rocks. Swearing loudly, Crow typed more to find that it did nothing. Thinking hard to try and crash the system, Crow found out that all she had to do was type a few anti-codes and bam! it would be done. Typing in a few numbers and letters, Sparky suddenly screamed again and the two turned around to find Slade charging at them. Crow went to put up a shield but instead came up with a steel shoe to the face. She let out a scream and fell back as Slade kicked her again, and Terrance sprang forward.
'Hey! Leave her alone!' he yelled, and tried to hit the evil man, but Slade caught his fist and pushed him back. Holding his hurt wrist, he glared at Slade as he aimed a kick for his chest. Falling back and groaning, Terrance closed his eyes for a moment, and Terra flashed through his mind. She was still 8-years-old, and her gray butterfly clip was holding her hair out of her eyes; it was placed just above her right ear. Her eyes were filled with sorrow and shock. Get up, she said silently, and his eyes snapped open. 'Slade!' he yelled suddenly as Crow fell. He took a swing and hit the villain in the stomach and as Sparky swooped down to help, he ran over to Crow and helped her to her feet.
'I'll take care of Slade; you two stop the device!' she yelled, and Terrance nodded. He slung her arm around his neck and carried her over to the control panel. He looked her in the eyes and propped her up as she opened her eyes.
'Crow, do you know how to stop this thing?' he asked her as soon as she gained focus. She looked around for a moment before rubbing her head and then shaking it.
'No; I forget,' she said unsteadily, and Terrance noticed an extremely small contraption on her temple. Groaning, he looked over at the wall and picked up a kind of large rock with his powers.
'Well if you can't remember, then I'm gunna do what I wanted to do before. Smash the damn thing! I bet it'll stop when there are no controls to tell it to go,' he said, and Crow snapped out of her woozy trance.
'No! I may not remember the codes, but I do know that we can't wreck the controls! If you destroy those controls, then it might never be stopped. Just trust me on this,' she said as her aura wrapped around the rock. Terrance groaned as he tried to force the rock forward.
'Look, Crow, I have no idea why you don't trust me, but if you would just let go, then I could stop the controls, and your beloved home would be saved!' he yelled, and she frowned.
'I don't trust you because you don't deserve it. Do you have any idea why I meditate everyday?' He shook his head. 'I do that because it keeps my own powers under control. You couldn't control yours, and now all of a sudden you can? How can you seem so perfect when everything seems so set up?' Terrance frowned for a moment before speaking. He was now in no mood whatsoever to argue.
'But how can I earn your trust if you think everything I do or say isn't real?' he asked, and she smiled faintly.
'Well, you can start earning my trust if you could stop trusting your instincts and start trusting mine.' He frowned, then let go of the rock. It fell with a crash in-between them, and Crow smiled. 'Now, we have to finish typing in the codes. I did about half before Slade came. And speaking of him, do you think Sparky is doing okay?' Terrance followed her pointing finger to see that Slade and Sparky were now fighting in the elevator shaft opposite them, and it was rising towards the ceiling. Terrance wondered how the two could fight when they were moving at like 20 mph.
Inside the shaft, Sparky shot another bolt of lighting at her hero's foe – and now her foe – and groaned as another one missed him. Stand still! she wanted to yell, and she aimed a kick. Dodging yet another attack, Slade grinned behind his mask and tripped her. At the same time he pushed her and she smacked her head off the side of the shaft. Letting out a yell, Sparky narrowed her eyes and formed a large ball of lighting. She shot it with a squeal and this time, she didn't miss. Happily smiling as Slade stumbled, the area suddenly shook again, and she saw in fear that large amount of the ceiling was falling. Pretty soon the area between the laser would get so thin that the tower would force it down, and she gasped.
'The tower! Our tower!' she said worriedly in a high-pitched voice, and Slade replied.
'Is going down.' Frowning, Sparky clenched her fists and tried to hit the villain one last time, but he jumped out of the shaft and seemed to disappear. Looking up, she saw the shaft was coming loose, and she jumped for her life, quickly flying before she hit the ground.
'I'm not going to let the happen!' she screamed, and electricity sparked all around her. Letting out a forceful scream, a large electric ball of energy formed around her, and shot in all directions. Terrance looked up as Crow typed in something on the controls, and gasped.
'Look out!' he screamed, and pushed her out of the way before an extremely large rock fell on top of the controls. The beams on the worms flickered for a moment before growing larger and stronger, and Crow shot a glare at him before dusting herself off. Looking a little embarrassed, Terrance shrugged and smiled. 'Okay fine. You were right. Smashing the controls, was a bad idea.'
'You know it,' she said, and then frowned sadly.
Up on and around the shore of their tower's island, the other girls – still a little shaken from when the beams had started – were giving it their all to stop them. After a few minutes of fighting, Gypsie got an idea. Grabbing Beast Babe's hand, she flew up to one of the worms and held on tight; Beast Babe turned into an octopus so she wouldn't fall off. Grinning evilly, Gypsie's eyes glowed her colour and her aura spread from her hands to the worm. A part of the worm fall away until it was big enough for a mouse to fit into, and Beast Babe got the idea. Changing back into herself for a moment to high five her friend, she then turned into a small and jumped inside the worm. Biting wires here and there, electricity sparked and the worm gradually fell apart. Quickly getting out of there before she blew, Beast Babe spread her new wings and landed next to her celebrating friends.
'Hell yeah! Now that's what I'm talkin' about!' she said, and Gypsie pulled out her communicator.
'Hey Spark, we took out the worms at last! We won! Sparky?' Suddenly the ground underneath them shook furiously, and three large lasers erupted under their feet. Each of them screamed as they lifted off the ground, and a tear began to form in their eyes. 'No,' she whispered, and they fell to the city's shore, leaving the large T-shaped building to sink into the waters of the Edge City bay.
Back down under the ground, Terrance stared as the ceiling began to fall. He knew that the tower was going down, and a plan formed in his mind.
'Terrance c'mon. We have to go now. There's nothing we can do. The tower is done for,' Crow said sadly, and Terrance's eyes turned yellow.
'No it isn't. There's still something we can do. Trust me.' As if a strong wind had come into the space, Terrance's sort of long hair fluttered around his head, and he looked up with a yell, raising his arms as he did so. A strong beam of yellow light erupted from his hands and flew up until it hit the falling rock, and he tried to force it up. But it was proving to be too much of a heavy burden as Terrance's knees buckled and the tower and the island underneath it began to fall again, and Crow walked up beside him.
'Numactial Rentacon Sonier!' she said, and her powers shot up from her own hands, making the rocks go up, as well as Terrance. The two pushed as hard as they could, and pretty soon, the tower was going up.
Back on shore, Moonfire was crying on Gypsie's shoulder. Beast Babe was just staring blankly as her home as it went when a rumbling reached her pointy green ears. Then she saw something that raised her hopes to the heavens.
'No way,' she whispered, and hit Gypsie's arm. She looked also, and smiled.
'Moonfire, you gotta see this,' she said, and Moonfire shook her head.
'I cannot look. Our home, it is…' she trailed off as she turned slowly around, and what she saw made her lift into the air in happiness. 'Saved! Our home is saved!' she squealed, and her sad tears turned to happy ones.
'But how?'
'Terrance. He did it. He saved our home,' Beast Babe proudly, and Gypsie heard her communicator beep. She turned it on and opened it up to find Sparky smiling back at her.
'Terrance and Crow, they did it together. They're patching up the rocks now so it doesn't come loose. Now, I want you guys to go back to the tower. Get paint, a few blankets, and some appliances. You remember that spare room we have…'
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Terrance and Crow walked down one of the long and dark hallways of the Titans' North tower. They were talking, and for once, they weren't fighting.
'So, I guess this means we have to be friends now huh?' he asked, and she giggled.
'Close enough,' she replied, and he smiled. It was good not to fight.
'So, I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused. I was only trying to help. I guess you cold say we got off to a rocky start.' Crow groaned at his joke, then nodded.
'You could say that, but to be honest, we actually got off pretty well. You know, I've known Beast Babe all my life, and I still cant get used to her.' They laughed for a moment before Crow walked into a room. He followed and looked around. Everything was pitch black.
'Uh, where are we?' he asked, and she turned on the lights.
'Your new room.' Terrance gasped as the others came into view as light spread to every corner of the room, and he gazed at what they had done. The walls were painted like a blooming desert, and a starry night would greet him everytime he would wake up. There were a few cactuses here and there, and a circular bed was on a small platform in the far side of the room, which was almost another small room in itself, seeing as there was the bed, and that was it. The forth wall was a window, and right in front of that was a comfy-looking couch, with a coffee table in front. On it was a brand new laptop, and the background for it was the picture of Terra and him when they were little. The girls watched him with happiness as he nearly burst into tears.
'You mean, this is my room? You did all this for me?' Everyone nodded.
'Yeah, we wanted to thank you for saving our home. Do you know how hard it would be find another on such short notice?' Beast Babe said, and a look of shock and amazement covered his face.
'You deserved it Terrance,' Crow said from behind him, and he felt like hugging everyone. Never had he felt so wanted and welcome.
'We also think you deserve this,' Sparky said, and tossed him a little gadget that had been given to him only once before. And as he stared at his own Titan's communicator, he felt the tears well up in his eyes.
'I'm, a Titan?' he asked slowly, and everyone nodded again. 'Holy hell, I never thought this day would come. Thank you so much,' he said, and everyone smiled happily.
'You know, there is only one thing that can top off the wondrous day,' Gypsie said happily, and Terrance turned to her. 'Pancakes!' she exclaimed, and Terrance smiled. Hey, pancakes are good!
'Yum!' Sparky said as headed out the door after her friend.
'Wondrous,' Moonfire said with a sly grin as she walked past the newest Titan, and she was sure to pull up her shirt.
'Can they be non-dairy? You know I won't eat them if they're not,' Beast Babe yelled as she was about to leave, then he turned to Terrance. 'You comin'?' she asked, and he spun around.
'Yeah, I'll be right there. Just give me a minute okay,' he said, and she smiled and ran after Gypsie for her non-dairy pancakes. He stared at the communicator with a smile, then at his desktop. 'I don't believe it,' he whispered, then noticed his locket lying next to the folding computer. 'They actually trust me, just like they did you.' He looked down and his bangs fell over his right eye; and this time, he didn't brush them away.
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There it is, and now for Part 3: Losing Another. This is gunna be in more than two seperate chapters, 'cause it's about 33 pages, so get ready for any cliffhangers if I can find them, new characters, and relationships mwahahaha!
Tiff