Chapter 10
I flew on the booster wings of my suit, flying low enough to the ground to keep out of aerial scans, but high enough up to keep away from traffic and power lines. I was headed out towards the local docks, figuring it was my best place to start looking. I let my mind free, and it began roaming around, searching for my query.
One searching tendril of my mind picked up on a visual feed from someone's eyes, and I quickly linked my mind with the one of my new target. I realized that I was staring at myself through the scope of a sniper rifle. My first instinct was to take off, and get out of there, but I picked up on a feeling of confusion. My "attacker" didn't know whether I was a threat or not. I smirked to myself, and decided to let him know just how deadly of an enemy I truly was.
I casually scanned the area, letting my suit do the hard work. It easily picked up his signature amongst a line of stored boats inside one of the warehouses there on the dock. I turned, and squared myself away with him, placing myself in an offensive posture. This kid was still to new to the game, and didn't know to take his shot and sort out the questions later, I could feel he knew that he should, but something held him back.
Curiosity? Yes, that's what I felt. The sniper was interested in finding out who I truly was. Well, I figured I shouldn't disappoint him. I leaned forward, and opened my visor, looking straight into his scope. He gasped as he saw the silver eyes staring at him, and tightened his grip on the trigger.
BAM
The gun reported, but I knew when that bullet was going to leave the chamber long before the sniper ever did. By the time he had even pulled the trigger, I had jumped/flipped up into the rafters of the warehouse. The bullet flew out of the door and was lost out in the water somewhere along its way. The boy's eyes widened, just in time to meet my flying steel foot. He slid back across the floor, moaning in pain. It was then that the crushing weight fell on me.
Huge arms had wrapped around my chest, and were now doing their best to crush the armor. Even though the armor held perfectly, the movement joints were compressing, essentially using the armor itself as a huge vice. I struggled to get free, my body screaming for the air that was being denied it. Desperately, I activated my knuckle bomb, and punched a nearby pole. The entire pole literally disintegrated, but the force of the blow was enough to throw the both of us back. I landed on top of him and from there, easily flipped out of his grasp.
I turned and faced my opponent, and stopped cold. 'He' was not a he, but a she. A huge Amazon woman stood facing me, her arms the size of my thighs. I gasped, and lit my thrusters, blasting safely out of her reach.
The huge woman moved with incredible speed, crossing the distance I had put between her and myself in an instant, catching me off guard with a heavy uppercut. I grunted from the pain as I crashed into the side of a gigantic yacht. A war cry rang through the air as she charged again. I was ready for her this time. My mind came down on her own, pushing a false image of myself moving off to the left, when at the same time, I moved right. The dual image of me in her mind brought her to a sudden stop. I manipulated my second image to mirror my every move, and moved to both sides of her. My 'mirror' moved first, blasting it's thrusters and rushing towards her. She turned to block, just as I lit off my own thrusters. The image passed right through her, throwing her off balance. At that moment, my feet swept under her legs, turning her body parallel to the floor. She was still mid-flight when my right arm came around in a massive punch, catching her square in the small of her back. She sailed across the room, smashing a small speedboat that was in her path.
BLAM----PING!
A bullet sailed from the snipers weapon, only to bounce harmlessly off of my outstretched, armored hand. My hand pulled down to a fist, and a single red hot spike fired from my needle gun. It hit the sniper's rifle square in the barrel, and buried itself halfway through the weapon before it finally came to rest.
A sailing fist finished off the sniper, leaving him unconscious on the floor. I turned from the fallen assassin towards the Amazon, who was just then climbing her way from the wreckage of the speedboat she had hit. I took a good look at her, studying her features and debating the best way to fight her. My best bet would be to stand here and fire relentlessly with the needle gun in my right hand, and the machine gun in my left, but I knew she would know how to defend herself from something that simple. I figured the best way to defeat a hand to hand combatant, was besting them in hand to hand. I spun my body gracefully to a judo stance, and motioned for the female assassin to attack.
She didn't disappoint me. With a wild war cry, she charged across the building, closing the distance between us at an alarming rate. I thought about my fighting style, changed poses, and stood waiting for the attack.
My change of fighting styles threw the assassin. She had expected a grappling match, but was instead met by a flurry of attacks that seemed to come from every side of her. My master had taught me well in all the arts of fighting, but this one was one of my specialties. I spun in perfect ninjitsu form, attacking with a speed that most humans eyes could not even follow. The Amazon I fought was an incredible human, but she was only that. Human. The fury of my attack was incredible, as I tuned my anger and frustration into strength. I knew that most of the "good guys" tended to stay away from things such as that, but in this fighting style, there was nothing more powerful.
One particularly powerful punched landed square on her face, blood gushed from her broken nose. And then I made my mistake. I stopped. I had jumped back to reset myself for another attack, and she was all over me. She hit in key points, punching me and kicking me in the gaps between my armor. My body screamed in pain, but I pushed it aside. Letting my body go limp, I flew across the building from a powerful roundhouse kick. I curled up in a fetal position, rolled a few times across the floor, and came back at her, my thrusters leaving a trail of fire behind me. We squared off against each other, blocking each other, countering, but both of us were perfectly equal.
We both backed off at the same time, both breathing hard. I growled, and flexed my hands.
SCHIIIINK
We both stared at my arm. A blade had slid down out of the upper wrists of my armor. I had no idea how I had pulled it off, but I was not going to argue. The shimmering steel glinted in the lights, and I repositioned myself to a fighting stance more suited for my new found weapons. They were mounted to my armor, making them a lot less maneuverable, but I could deal. I had a pair of blades once again, and I couldn't be more pleased.
The Amazon smirked, reached over, and picked up a long iron pipe from one of the boats we had destroyed. She tapped it impatiently against her opposite hand, waiting for me to make my move.
I was tired of this game, and I needed to get back home to my sister, I could still feel the weight of her concern on my shoulders.
We circled once, circled twice, and both charged at the same time. My thrusters firing, her long stride pounding towards me. We collided in a shower of sparks, and I barely managed to hold back her powerful overhand swing. I smiled to myself behind my armored helmet. The suit had been analyzing her fighting style, her movements, and her build. It was now giving me a readout on how she fought, and the best way to combat it, even going as far to give me probabilities of where she would attack next.
That thing never ceased to amaze me.
I spun, changed fighting styles again, and rushed the towering woman. My blades crossed against her bludgeon, slicing through it just above her hands, leaving her defenseless. She threw the piece I had left her at me, it bounced harmlessly off of my plating.
"What are you?" she exclaimed, her eyes suddenly wide with fear.
"I thought you knew when you took the hit."
My emotionless voice echoed in the hall with all the authority of death himself.
"You've come to my home town to take me on, and you don't even understand the power of the one you fight? What kind of assassin is that?"
She visibly shook, backing away from my slow advance. Her eyes never left the pair of blades extended from my wrists. Every assassin knew that when I had a pair of blades to fight with, there was hardly a force on the planet that could contend with me.
I literally disappeared from in front of her, using both my own speed, and the thrusters on my suit.
"Are you scared yet?" I whispered in her ear.
She knew of my devices, and knew when I started whispering, I was toying with them. She spun, swinging wildly into the air, but I was nowhere to be found. My voice laughed from the rafters, and I was immediately standing in front of her. She gasped and swung. Her arms passed clean through my illusion. Her stumble stopped with a jerk, and a sharp pain in her head. My iron grip had closed around her long black ponytail. I pulled her back, so that she was pressed against the cold metal of my suit.
"It's time for you and your playmate to leave my city" I whispered.
"And give up on the price they put on you?" she hissed.
"Is it worth your life?"
My blade was against her throat, a slight trickle of blood escaped from her where the razor sharp blade made contact with her skin.
"I'll inform the guild of your antics!" she exclaimed.
"You do that," I smirked, " and I'll send every last one of them running, tail between their legs, like you're going to do right now."
With that statement, my mind exploded in its ferocity into her own, pushing an enormous weight of fear on her.
"uugghh"
The sniper was waking up.
I looked from the sniper to the girl, and back to the sniper. My left hand left her throat long enough to fire a pair of steel spikes from my needle gun. I had turned the heat off of them, but the spikes themselves hit with enough force to pin his jacket to the boat he was leaning against.
"Y-you could have shot me that entire time?" the Amazon stuttered.
A breathy laugh escaped me, and I almost smiled at the sight of her quivering face. I still had the old touch.
"Get out of my city," I growled, " I never want to see your face here again."
I let her go, watching as she sprinted to her partner, pulled him off the ground, ripping my spikes through his jacket. She physically carried him over to a car that somehow survived our little bout of fisticuffs, threw him inside, started the engine, and was gone. My mind chased after her, until I was sure she was leaving. My fear push had gotten its desired effect from her. She was running scared, blind fear overcame reason as she rushed for the city limits, wanting to never see the black armor of the Silver Mane again.
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Cyborg sat back. This was very interesting, very interesting. Even through the explosion, he should have been able to find his scattered DNA signature somewhere inside of the car, but it just wasn't there. Bone fragments, scorched fingernails, something had to have survived, but there was nothing. He had found a set of fingernail clippings, so he knew that if he had been in there, he would have found at least the ones off from his hands. There wasn't even a rubber smear from the melting of a pair of shoes. He needed to tell the rest of the team that their former teammate wasn't inside the car when it blew.
Then it hit him. The automatic start! Ryk had always used that damn thing. The car starting must have been the trigger. When Ryk had hit the start, it must have blown the car, and he took off, getting out of there.
But that still didn't explain Raven's feeling of death. She was usually right about things like that. It didn't matter anyways, he had no proof of his teammate's demise, and he needed to let the rest of the team know.
He was just about to call the rest of the team when Robin's came rushing into the garage.
"C'mon Cy!" he shouted. "There's something big going down at the docks!"
Cyborg was about to say something, but the boy wonder was already on his bike and roaring out the door. He sighed, he would have to tell him later. The titanium titan ran to his own vehicle, jumped in and roared out the door, leaving a hapless Raven standing in the doorway.
The dark girl rolled her eyes, concentrated for a moment, and flew out the door after the group.
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I landed gently in front on the roof of my apartment complex, carrying a pair of paper grocery bags in my arms. I had laughed at all the looks from the people in the store. Even the clerk looked like she was ready to run for her life when I came through. I had walked out the door with a cheery goodbye, leaving a stunned look on everyone inside. Now that I was back home, however, I let out a long sigh, and slowly trudged my way over to the access door.
Home. It was good to be back home.
A giggly Jinx dashed from her room, wrapping her arms around my armored stomach in a quick girlish hug. She smiled up at me, welcomed me home, and after making me promise to tell her all about what happened, promptly disappeared before I could ask for help with the groceries. I smiled to myself, and walked to the kitchen, placing the bags on the counter.
Moments later I was out of my armor, and back into normal street clothes. Jinx walked back into the kitchen just in time to watch me put away the last bit of our groceries. She strolled over to the small table, pulled a chair out, and flopped down on it, sitting so she was facing the back of the chair. I smiled at her and closed the door to the fridge.
I sat down across from her, popping open the can of soda in my hand.
"So?" she questioned me.
I took a long draught from the can before starting into my soda. I was going to tell her everything. No use hiding things from family, especially one that had probably been through as much as I already had.
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Cyborg charged into the building, his right arm already shifting into a laser cannon. He was stopped short by the trio standing casually in the middle of the warehouse. Dropping his hands to his side, he walked over to where they were. Robin noticed him first
"Cy! Good, you're here, there's something you need to see!" the boy wonder exclaimed.
"Uumm," Beast Boy smiled, "did you forget something?"
Cyborg looked around, confused. What did he forget? An arm maybe? No he had both of those. Did he forget to put a piece of armor back on? A quick diagnostic told him he had not done that either.
"Thanks for the ride, metal head."
Raven floated through a smashed window behind him, and gently landed on the ground.
Apologies flew from Cy's mouth, begging her forgiveness.
Robin gave the metal boy a weird look, he certainly was talkative today.
"I was…distracted," he said. "But there is something you guys need to know!"
"So do you!" Starfire exclaimed, literally jumping up and down, pointing at the floor.
There was a message etched into the surface of the concrete floor itself.
Sorry about the mess I've been leaving around the city.
-Ryk
Cyborg stood there, staring at the scarred pavement.
"He's alive!" Starfire giggled.
"Well, I could have told you that."
Everyone was now looking at a very proud Cyborg.
"I checked his car out, and there was no evidence of him being inside the car when it went up in flames. The only thing we found were his blades and his coat, but he could have left them in the car when he got out!"
Raven's shoulders slumped. "But I felt his death," she mumbled. "it was so pressing, almost like he died in my own arms."
Star giggled again. "Maybe you are actually wrong in this sense."
Raven nodded her head. "I certainly hope so, Star, I really do."
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Jinx sat at the table across from me, her mouth agape after my retelling of the story. I had told her the honest truth, leaving nothing out.
"I'm going with you next time!" she exclaimed.
"I don't think that's such a good idea."
"Why not?" she pouted. "I can take care of myself."
"Jean," I said, using her real name, "I just found you, and I'm not going to lose you again."
The pink sorceress looked me straight in my eyes. "And that makes me feel any better?"
I shrugged.
"What happens if you're the one that doesn't survive! I would never be able to live with myself if there was something I could have done!"
"Jean…"
"No, listen to me. I'm going with you, and I am going to do everything that I can to make sure that we both survive all of this."
I smiled down into her pink eyes, the sweet smell of her perfume contradicting with the stern look on her face.
"Alright," I gave in, "you can come. Just, please be careful."
The serious look never left her face. "I will, promise."
She offered her hand to me. I took her offer, and we shook on it, sealing the deal.
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The Titans all gathered in the main room, each one looking across at the next. They wanted to get in touch with their old teammate, let him know that they were worried about him, let him know that they still cared, and even to let him know that he was welcome back, if he would only accept their apologies. The problem was, nobody knew where he was, or how to get a hold of him.
"He told me," Raven mumbled, "that when we were ready to contact him, I would know how."
Everyone stared at the telekinetic girl sitting on the couch. She was just barely peeking over the top of her latest book.
"But I still haven't figured out how, yet." she finished, and promptly disappeared behind her book again.
Starfire was across the room to where she was sitting, pulling the book away from her.
"Then let us all help you find out how!" she exclaimed.
Blue eyes rolled at the comment, and Raven reached for her book. Starfire giggled, and held it playfully out of reach. Raven eventually gave up, and slumped back into her seat.
"Fine," she stated, "but he specifically told me that I would know how, not that you would."
"Well, maybe we can all help you find out what it is, then." Robin was smiling at the idea.
"Let us think now," Star started. "What did you both have in common, maybe it was something like that?"
"Well, they both were always up early." Cyborg noted.
Robin smiled, "They both like the color black."
Starfire clapped her hands together, her idea was working wonderfully, maybe with all of them working together, they could figure out Ryk's riddle.
"They can both use their mind as their weapon." the Tamaranian added.
Beast Boy was smiling ear to ear. "They both spent a night in a hotel room together!"
A black-encased pillow immediately flew across the room knocking the changeling and his chair over. The little elf sat up, rubbing his head, and sticking his tongue out at Raven.
"C'mon, be serious, won't you?" Robin intervened.
Then it all fit together. Even Beast Boy's comment put things where they needed to be. It was so easy! Why hadn't she thought of it before?
"Our meditation." Raven blurted.
Everyone looked at her.
"I could feel him when we meditated together that night at the hotel room. Maybe if I reach out with my mind when I meditate, instead of in, I might be able to get a hold of him."
Star smiled at the blue cloaked girl. It had worked. They now knew how to try to get a hold of their friend.
"I am going to ask for all of your help when I do this," Raven stated. "I have never tried to meditate like he does, and I don't know what the strain of trying to might do to my physical body. I am going to try to contact him tomorrow morning when I know that he will be meditating as well, hopefully I will be able to catch him.
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I rose bright and early the next morning, like I always had, and probably always would. I strode to the top of the building, and began my morning workout.
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BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM
A sleepy Beast Boy answered the door, only to be greeted by a bone crushing hug, and a huge smile from the resident Tamaranian.
"You are late," she scolded.
"Late? Late for what?"
Beast Boy fought the sleep off, trying to put everything back into place in his mind.
"We are going to try to contact our friend Ryk this morning!"
BB's eyes went wide, realizing he had promised to be up there. He had planned on being up there waiting for everyone else, to show his concern, and here he was, the late one. He rushed wildly around the room, getting dressed. He bolted out the door, turning into a cheetah just to get there a little bit faster. When he arrived at the roof, he found that everyone had gathered around a strangely dressed Raven, and were all whispering quiet encouragements to her. She stood there, breathing slowly, evenly, and waiting for something.
Robin caught sight of the staring elf, and waved him over.
"She's been waiting for you!" he hissed.
BB nodded, and whispered a quiet apology. Everyone knew about the quiet that Raven needed for her meditation, and now she needed it more than ever. She knelt down, mimicking the position I had taken during my meditation with her, hands placed halfway down her thighs, knees pushed together, head bowed. She tried and tried, sweat beading on her forehead from the effort. Her concentration broke, and she collapsed on the ground. She wasn't used to this new position, and it was seriously throwing her off. She decided to go back to her own traditional lotus. She knew that it was more based towards an inward reflection, but maybe, just maybe she could turn it outwards.
She slipped into her concentration, at first centering herself within herself, and then she began to force her conscious self outwards. Her own mind bucked and kicked back at her, yet still she fought on. And then it happened. She broke the limits of her own mind, and could see everything around her, but from a standpoint that she never thought possible. She was there, standing next to her body, standing next to her friends, and she had limitless sight. She stood there and marveled, noticing a stream of color that seemed to radiate from the bad side of town.
"Ryk?" she called.
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I knelt on the ground meditating almost 5 miles away. My form was perfected, my mind synced with the world, and exploded through the alleys. I worked my way through downtown, and eventually out over the waterways. I found the Titans tower, and swirled around it.
'Ryk?'
My mind shuddered. That voice, I knew it, it had cried out to me before.
'Ryk? Can you hear me?'
I let my mind be drawn to the call.
'Ryk, please answer me, I can't hold this for long'
My mind rushed the call, exploding over the water, and following it towards the Titans Tower. It was Raven's distinct call I felt, somehow she had figured out how to meditate like I did, and now she was calling me again. This time, not from desperation, but from her own will.
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The Titans knelt around their dark companion, wiping the sweat from her face, whispering gentle encouragements. The girl began shaking violently from her efforts. Starfire grasped the shaking girl, holding her in her form, thus keeping her from losing her concentration. Robin's firm hand fell on one shoulder, Cyborg's on another. BB was holding a rag, and was busy keeping the sweat from running down her face.
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Raven 'looked' down at her body, feeling the effort that this was taking her. She called out again.
"Ryk! Please answer me! I can't hold on much longer!"
The multi-colored stream vibrated, and my voice rang clear from it.
'Hello Raven'
"Ryk? Ryk is that you?"
'It very well might be.'
"Ryk, we need to talk to you."
'Who needs to talk to me?'
"Robin does, we all do……I…do."
An image of my own body materialized in front of the struggling girl. I took note of the agony she was going through, and saw the rest of the team sitting around her body, tending to it while she fought to maintain her concentration.
'Where do you want me to meet you?'
I was trying to get this over with quick, she couldn't hold her concentration long, and I knew at any moment she would lose it.
"Can you follow me?" she asked
'Follow you where?'
"M-m-my own mind."
'Only if I am invited.'
"Please. I trust you."
I was amazed at what I had just heard. I had never heard of this girl trusting anyone before. Maybe Robin, but she never really let on to it.
'Go, get back where you can handle yourself, I'll give you a minute to get yourself back under control, and then I'll be there, ok?'
The image of Raven in front of me nodded, and was gone.
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Robin watched as the girl's violent shakes got worse and worse. Robin was about ready to do something to try to bring her out of it when, in a snap, she was calm. Her body stopped shaking, she stopped sweating, almost like she just stopped completely. Cyborg frantically checked her pulse. He sighed in relief as he felt her pulse running strongly through her veins. She had suddenly adapted, or so they thought. Either that, or she was in a coma. They would give her time, though.
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I was in. Raven's mind was more organized than anyone else's I had ever been in. Everything was in its place, nothing floating generally about. I skimmed over the thoughts, looking for where Raven's consciousness hidden inside her mind. I came upon an open field. A mindscape? I had heard about them, but only the most advanced meditation techniques could create them, and this was not a small one. I moved towards it, knowing that if anywhere, this is where she would want to meet me. I saw her image standing in the midst of the field, conversing with several identical copies. The only difference was their robes. One yellow, one green, one pink, one gray, and Raven's own blue. The other forms acted with very single track minds. These were her emotions, filed neatly away like everything else in her mind. I did not understand why she would need to lock her emotions away like so, but at the same time I refrained myself from searching for it, respecting my friend's privacy.
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The titans stared at the now calm Raven. She had been struggling so much a moment ago, but now she seemed so at ease. They whispered quietly amongst themselves, trying to figure out what had just happened to the dark girl.
End Chapter 10