Ok, I got a bit carried away, and actually split this one up to keep the chapter size down. Not really a whole lot else to say today...so enjoy!
Chapter 25
P-34R M3 Part 1
Nightmare stood at the front entrance to the HIVE's entrance, idly caressing the blade of her axe. Gizmo paced the floor impatiently, waiting for something to happen, and Mammoth sat lazily on the floor, devouring a huge sub sandwich. A phone rang inside the guard shack, and Nightmare stylishly flicked the phone from its receiver, caught it, and slapped it alongside her head.
"Yeah?" she droned.
Brother Blood's voice echoed two words into her ear. "They're coming."
Nightmare's eyes went wide, remembering what had happened last time she had gone against these four, and her knuckles turned white as she regripped her axe. Slowly, she put the phone back into place, and turned towards where the other two were.
"They're coming," she repeated.
Gizmo's eyes went wide, and he snapped a pair of binoculars up out of his pack, and over his eyes. He looked frantically up and down the streets. Mammoth lumbered to his feet, and stuffed the rest of his sandwich down his throat.
"It's stompin' time," he growled.
Smoke flew from my tires as I flew down a back alley. A turn came up quick, and without giving it a second thought, I turned the bike, all but laying it down, and slammed one foot into the ground. The bike's tires left the ground, and for a moment, both Raven and I were airborne. Rubber hit cement once more as the tires found traction on the side of the building. I cranked the engine hard, and literally rode the wall barely clearing a chain link fence, and blasting out overtop of traffic. The engine howled as the tires spun free once more.
Raven gripped my waist for dear life.
I grit my teeth, and wrestled the bike back underneath us, landed atop a semi truck, stopped widthwise on the trailer, and with a squeal of rubber on metal, and a long black strip, I blasted the bike forward, off the top of the truck, and in between lanes of traffic. The bike exploded past cars like they stood still, and ruined traffic for miles in every direction.
Gizmo's eyes bugged out as he lowered the binoculars. His hand rose, shaking, and pointed straight down the road. The unmistakable shape of the T-Car rose in the distance, and bore down on them link an avalanche.
Nightmare stepped into the middle of the entrance, spinning her axes murderously. Mammoth stomped craters under his feet, and braced himself for a fight, while Gizmo flitted about overhead, blasters ready.
Cyborg grinned maniacally as his baby bore down on the three HIVE students. Cars swerved from his crazed path, and those that didn't were easily dodged. He reached to the dashboard, fingered a series of switches. The back of the car transformed as the Nitro booster slid out, a wrought iron plow unfolded at the front end, and the photon cannon extracted itself from the hood. A series of displays fell from the ceiling and fit itself over Cyborg's robotic eye. Readings flickered across his vision, and he zoomed in till he could literally see the panicked look on Gizmo's face.
Beast Boy had a huge Cheshire Cat grin on his face.
The photon cannon hummed to life, and began to glow with energy as Cyborg fed it from the engine.
Gizmo retracted his binoculars for a second time, and sweat ran down his face.
"Uhm…guys…I don't think he's stopping for the toll booth."
Nightmare stared at him.
"I'll stop 'em," The steroid enhanced student growled, and lowered his shoulders, waiting for the incoming vehicle.
"Smile for the camera," Cyborg smirked, and focused his sight directly over Mammoth's face.
The car was only two blocks off, and Nightmare was beginning to wonder…
…she ran out of time.
Light danced from the front of the kamikaze vehicle, and the photon cannon erupted in their direction. She flung herself out of its path with only a hairsbreadth of leeway. Mammoth wasn't so lucky.
Time slowed down.
Mammoth blinked and swore the instant before the laser burst connected solidly with his chest.
Time resumed.
Mammoth was thrown violently across the gates, and the T-Car blasted through the now unguarded entrance at over one hundred miles per hour. Metal shrieked and was thrown to the side as he plowed through the gate, and headed suicidally towards the institute itself. The engine roared, and Cyborg discovered just how sturdy the glass front doors were.
-SSHHHAAAAAAATTERRRRRRR-
Glass flew in a river away from the invading vehicle.
Nightmare stumbled back to her feet, and Gizmo jetted out from behind the guard shack, where he had been hiding. They both stared dumbly for a moment after the maniacal T-Car, but both of their attention was stolen by another sound from behind them.
-VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!-
They both turned just in time to see a silver form standing atop a rocketing motorcycle. A petite girl in a blue cloak was driving, and it too barreled towards them with no regard for its own safety.
I flexed my arms as I stood on the front end of the R-Cycle, my helmet glistened in the morning sunlight, my long hair beat in the wind. I crouched low, and pulled both my blades, holding them out like in a cross.
Neither of the HIVE students had a moment to think.
-SLIIIINK-
My twin blades grazed both of their cheeks, the velocity of the passing motorbike throwing them to the ground. Raven followed the T-Car's path, and slid to a stop just behind it. The atrium of the building was unnervingly quiet as we dismounted from the bike. Cyborg and Beast Boy slammed the T-Car's doors closed. With a click, both me and him set the security systems on both vehicles, and turned to face each other.
"Now THAT is a classic entrance!" he roared.
I smirked, and glanced around the room. Four entrances, two security cameras, and the entire building was built out of these hexagonal patterns…they look removable, no telling what's behind them.
When it happened, there was barely and warning. The honeycomb patterns on the wall literally reversed themselves, revealing a bristling array of weapons, and they all were aimed at us.
I gasped, grabbed Raven, and hauled us both between the bullet proof bodies of the T-Car and the R-Cycle. All four of us hunkered down, Cyborg taking the occasional potshot, and destroying a laser gun here or a sensor array there. It really made little difference, we were pinned down.
"Cover me," Raven hummed, her eyes turning a charcoal grey as she recited her famous spell over and over, gathering her soul energy for an attack.
"Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos."
My knuckles turned white around my blades.
"Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos."
My knees bent as I gathered myself for our next move.
"Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos."
Silver eyes shone against the polished side of the T-Car.
"Azarath…Metrion…ZINTHOS!"
Raven and I stood as one, and I became a virtual whirlwind of silver around her, blocking bullets, reflecting blasts, and even swatting the occasional missile away to explode against a wall somewhere.
Raven floated gracefully behind me, her arms lifted straight out, and her wrists bent. Her fingers twitched, and thousands of glass shards on the ground lifted themselves, encased in her obsidian energy. The broken windows, doors, ornaments…anything not nailed down became the girl's weapon, and they whirled about us in a violent spiral, erupting out from the mass, and destroying delicate circuitry, smashing apart guns, destroying laser guns, and tearing miniature missile launchers clean off the wall.
-PHOOM!-
A final missile launched from its rack, moments before Raven's deadly glass shards tore the piece of machinery to shreds. I finished a back flip, spun gracefully, and effectively slashed the rocket in twain. The two sparking halves split around the two of us, and exploded on the floor.
I smirked, and bowed to the team. They all clapped, and as I stood, a laser burnt through the air where my head was a moment ago, three more burned through my uniform, and ate into my back, throwing me face down in between the two vehicles once again. I growled, and tightened my grip on the twin daggers. Cyborg clenched his fists, and Beast Boy turned into a small garden snake slipping out from under the cars unnoticed. In a moment, the snake returned, and morphed back into the little green elf.
"Ain't good guys," he said. "There's only two doors open, but both of them are packed with some kind of defense robot.
We all nodded, and prepared ourselves.
"Titans," Cyborg mumbled, staring between each and every one of us. "GO!"
The four of us exploded from our hiding place behind the car, and rushed the 'HIVE bots' in unison. Raven ran, not floated, ran with us as we fell upon the yellow painted bots with a vengeance. Cyborg tore into our opponents with titanium fury, while I moved like death himself between them. Behind us, a veritable zoo's worth of green hued animals shredded robots. A kangaroo would pounce on one, only to turn into a Velociraptor, and tear its mechanical head off with razor sharp teeth. Raven moved with a gentle graze, landing seemingly gentle blows on vital joints on our robot adversaries. Each blow was accompanied by a blast of obsidian telekinesis. Each burst erupted from her open palm like a red hot sword, and easily tore through the droids' armor.
I almost smirked to see her working with the fighting style we had been working on.
Beast Boy found himself surrounded. Instead of panicking like he usually would, the elf swallowed hard, and turned himself into a spider monkey. The primate danced around on from one foot to the other, drawing curious stares from the defense bots. One dropped its arm, and looked closer at the absurdly acting animal, when the monkey dropped solidly to both feet, took on a very dangerous scowl, and proceeded to tear all kinds of monkey kung fu into their metallic asses.
Battle raged on inside the atrium of the HIVE academy, and the robots fell like water. Brother Blood growled as he watched the Titans tear through his defense force. He keyed a silent alarm that fed into the communicators of each and every HIVE student. About half of them dropped the crates and boxes they were helping to load, and rushed to their respective defensive positions. Most stayed in the hangar where the aircraft were being loaded, taking up guard over the doors, while some ran through the doors to attempt to intercept the Titans before they could reach the last defense line.
I dropped my last defense 'bot, and turned to see the others. Raven was standing calmly in the midst of innumerous robots, each on had a hole blown completely through its body, if not more than one. An occasional spark was the only thing showing she was not standing in a junkyard, but was in fact the victor of her battle. Cyborg slammed two heads together, through them to the ground, and fused the two metal faces together with a long burst from his sonic cannon. He smiled triumphantly.
"Boo-yah," he muttered.
"Where's Beast Boy," Raven inquired.
A primate's scream caught our attention, and we turned to help.
A green spider monkey leapt to the back of one of the robots, punched it about thirty times in a split second, denting its metal skull, pulled a handful of wires out from the cracked casing, and performed a roundhouse kick that removed the rest of the head. The monkey literally flew to the next one, and hit it in so many places so many times that it literally shattered from the impacts.
We watched in awe as the blur of green fury know to us as Beast Boy literally tore all kinds of ass on the defense bots.
Finally, the little primate performed a massive uppercut on the last one. It landed, sliding, on the floor at our feet. The green monkey landed on the robot's head, smirked, and turned into a Stegosaurus. The multi-ton dinosaur suddenly reduced the volume of the robot's body by a factor of 73, stomped once, twice, and a third time for good measure, and turned back into a very serious looking Beast Boy.
"Who's next," he growled.
The other three of us could barely blink. After a moment, Cyborg snapped out of his trance, and motioned towards the doors.
"Split up!" he shouted. "Ryk, you're with me, B.B, take Rae, and head down that side. Keep in touch, and happy hunting!"
The changeling saluted sharply, turned into a cheetah, and quietly padded down the open hallway. Raven floated silently along behind.
"Beast Boy," she asked, "since when…"
"I could ask the same of you," he cut her off.
"Ryk?"
"Yeah, you too?"
"He's taught us a lot, hasn't he."
"Mmhmm."
Raven stopped, and stared off. Beast Boy took a few extra steps before realizing his partner had floated her way to the ground.
"Raven?" he asked, "You ok?"
She stared off for a moment. "I know this isn't the best time to ask, but what have we done for him? He's done so much, and asked for nothing in return."
"Whoa, look who's turned into Mrs. Big Heart," the changeling grinned playfully.
The sorceress glared icy daggers at the boy, and silently lifted off her feet, floating past him. "Wrong person to ask…" she mumbled.
Beast Boy's sensitive ears picked up her words, and he stepped quickly to catch up.
"Rae, I'm sorry…I guess that wasn't the right thing to say, was it."
She ignored him, and turned a corner, right into a crowd of waiting HIVE students.
"Oh…"
Cyborg and I stared after the two for a moment after they left.
"Think they'll be ok," I asked.
"Trust them, Ryk, God knows you've taught them enough."
I nodded. "Still doesn't mean I can't worry 'bout my teammates."
A titanium hand fell on my shoulder. "I know, but we have a job to do."
I nodded, and the two of us began our walk towards the door.
"I got a chance to see them fight some," Cyborg mentioned. "You should be proud, they have both come a long way. Raven, Beast Boy, I mean, man, what did you teach them?"
I shrugged casually. "I taught Raven how to form her power into controlled bursts, and release it from certain points on her body. The palms of her hands were her best point of control, so combined with my own hack job of Tai Chi, she has a rather deadly form of hand to hand combat. Beast Boy, on the other hand, is the master of many different sizes and strengths. He's been the most interesting one to teach. The style you saw him using was a cross between ninjitsu and kickboxing, strange combination, but effective for him. He's also been learning a lot of the martial arts style developed for the Russian military's Special Forces. It concentrates more on overwhelming the opponent with massive amounts of strength, and finishing them in as few moves as possible."
Cyborg listened intently as we moved silently down the hall.
"I hate to say it, Cy, but the little guy is going to be the strongest of us all. As long as he can master what I am teaching him, not one of us will be able to stand up to him. Not you, not me, not even Robin."
We came to a corner, and the android held up a hand. We both stopped, absolutely silent. Holding up one of his arms, his middle finger separated at the first knuckle, and the camera that he usually used to control his arm remotely spun around. He gripped the wall, and let the camera take a peek around the corner. The hall looked clear, but for good measure, he kicked over to on infrared scan. His human eye went wide, as it revealed well over two dozen bodies hiding behind boxes, just inside doors, and every where else imaginable.
"Whoa," he whispered.
"How many," I hissed.
"Twenty six, thirty max."
I nodded, closed my eyes, and released my mind. The invisible hand flashed from one student to the next, studying their thoughts, and almost instantly returned to me.
"They're sacrificial lambs," I mumbled. "They know they're not going to beat us, they're just here to slow us down, and let the others escape."
"I figured."
My teeth sparkled as I smiled and pulled my blades. "We going to keep them waiting all day?"
A snap-hiss was my response, as Cyborg grinned deviously, and transformed his arm.
"On three?" I whispered.
"On three," he hissed.
We both turned, got into a fighting stance, stared at each other, and in unison…
"THREE!"
The two of us exploded around the corner in a chorus of disaster. I blurred down the hallway as Cyborg's powerful laser cut through boxes, and left ditches in the floor and walls. HIVE students were thrown haphazardly in every direction possible from our surprise assault on their surprise assault. I closed the distance in a breath, my feet whispering across the ground at inhuman speeds, red streaks trailing from the runes on my blades. One of the more daring students grabbed a wooden plank from one of the boxes that had been destroyed by Cyborg's cannon, and swung it at me.
-SLASH-
The two by four was cut neatly at a diagonal angle, and the severed half flew safely past me, clanking against the wall.
-SLLIIIIIIIIINK-
I followed through and left a long red line down the entire length of the student's arm. He howled in pain, for a moment, and was silenced by a titanium foot planted square in his chest. Cyborg stomped down the hall, ignoring the insignificant laser blasts that bounced harmlessly off his body. Twice his hand blurred up to his face, deflecting a blast aimed at the human part of his body, but his advance was never slowed. He reached a point between two students that were using doorways as cover, grabbed them both, slammed their heads together, and left them out cold on the ground. He crouched instinctively as I sailed over his head, tore apart a pair of electric billy-clubs. It was my turn to spin out of the way as a solid fist plowed through the boy's feeble arms, thrown up in defense, and slammed into his face.
…four down…
A thin girl with a single, long rapier stepped in my way, and jabbed swiftly at where I stood. I spun like a top around the razor sharp tip, and slashed across her shoulder. Liquid flew from the thin red line that appeared across her uniform. A squeak of pain escaped her mouth before I finished my spin, connected a powerful kick to her stomach, and was rewarded by her noise being silenced into a single cough as she fell to the ground. I bent over, and Cyborg rolled across my back, slammed his feet into the ground, and smirked as a pair of lasers bounced harmlessly off his armor.
"Heh, pop-guns," he growled.
Both his arms Snkkt'd into his cannons, and he aimed them both at the laser-wielding perpetrator. Without a hesitation, he released both beams, and plowed the poor kid through at least four heavy crates, and left him impacted into the far wall.
Cyborg stood back to back with me, and student after student was sent flying away from the impenetrable fury of our duo. We moved in unison, spinning while we moved down the hall. No attack was unnoticed, and both of us Titans were at our highest points. We reached the end of the hall, and one lone student, armed with a rocket launcher, stood staring at us, a demonic grin on his face. Cyborg gasped as the feeling of my back against his disappeared. A silver blur shot down the side of the hallway at the same time that the launcher fired. Fire roared from the exit of the tube, and the miniature missile flew. The whole world went into slow motion as I spun, dodged the missile, brought a single dagger up, slashed the tail off the rocket, spun it a full 180, and kicked it back at the very same place it had come from.
-KABOOOOOOOOOOOM!-
The rocket went off not three feet from where I stood, blowing the kid with the launcher back through the wall behind him. My eyes flashed silver, and the fire warped around my body as my psionic shield protected me from the blast. Instead of waiting it out, I marched forward, Cyborg taking up just off to my side.
Three more HIVE students, who had taken cover, and were protected from the blast, poked their heads out to see if the damage had been done. In the midst of the inferno, two silver eyes and one blood red eye stared back at them. Cyborg's glowing blue armor was the next thing to be seen. Blood ran cold through the veins of our enemies as we both stepped out of the rolling fire, trails of heat and flame flickering off of our bodies, and eyes glowing like demons.
"Dude!" one exclaimed, "You can't even hurt them!"
The two of us didn't even acknowledge the students as we silently made our way between them. Our gaze never faltered, even though their seemingly useless weapons followed us every inch of the path. Hands shook, and sweat ran down their faces as they watched us pass, but not one of them dared to make even a squeak.
The door to an elevator stood in front of us, and I simply held up my arm towards it. The doors slammed open, and the elevator was violently pulled up to our level. The two of us calmly walked into the car, and as we turned, Cyborg gently tapped the 'close door' button, let the doors close on their own, and he jabbed the button for the bottom floor.
"Dude!" he exclaimed the moment the doors closed. "We were totally badass back there!"
I nodded, smiling.
"I mean, I knew we were tough, but did you get a load of those last guys! I mean, the guy with the rocket launcher was like 'WHOOSH!' and you were like 'NO WAY!' and we was like 'Mommy!' and then that thing went 'BOOM!' and we were like…" he struck a pose with his arms across his chest, and leaning coolly against the wall "Check it dude, don't even move or we'll kick your ass."
I couldn't help it, I snorted out a laugh as the elevator descended. We both shared a good laugh, but dropped back to a solemn state as we dinged onto the last floor.
The door slid open, and we stared in awe at the enormous hangar bay. Giant cargo planes were being loaded as fast as humanly possible, HIVE defense bots even scurried about, hefting loose odds and ends into boxes, and the boxes into shipping crates. Overhead cranes picked up the full crates, and fed the gaping maw at the front of each aircraft.
We literally went unnoticed as we crept our way behind stacks of boxes, and around the room, getting a feel for what we were up against. That is, until a voice came over the hangar's loudspeaker.
"Hello Titans," Brother Blood's voice curled through the air. "It's such a pleasure to have you joining us finally. It seems as though you have made your way through my welcoming committee. Pity your friends weren't so lucky."
Both of our eyes scanned the hanger, and flew wide when we saw the speaker himself standing in a large open area of the hanger. Defense bots crowded around behind him in a defensive arc. Next to him, Mammoth stood with a proud grin on his face, but what truly caught our attention was what was in front of him. Beast Boy was tied down with some kind of rubber cuffs around his hands and his feet. Gizmo behind him, a laser gun pointed at the back of his head. Raven was literally folded over, her neck, arms and feet all chained together, but the chain was to short too let her move, or even sit comfortably. The awkward position kept her from relaxing, and falling into her meditation to break herself loose. It was a cheap, yet highly effective way to literally render her helpless. Nightmare stood in off to her side, holding a razor edged axe to her throat, and tapped the flat side under her chin every time her head drooped.
"You can come out of hiding now," Blood's voice dripped venomously. "Before I get impatient!"
As if to emphasize his point, Nightmare let the edge of her blade graze Raven's throat. The dark girl winced as a fine red line appeared behind the touch of the axe.
"Rae…no…" I mumbled.
"Ryk, don't do anything stupid." Cyborg warned me.
"Cy…we've got to do something. These are our allies, our friends…our family they have out there. I don't know about you, but I don't have a whole lot else to fall back on."
The Titan's shoulders fell, and his head fell. In unison, we both stepped out from behind the crates.
"Drop your weapons," he hissed, no longer using the announcement system.
I crouched slowly, and placed my blades on the ground.
"Ryk…no," Raven all but whispered. "We're not worth it…don't let them get away."
I ignored her, and kicked the twin daggers away from where I stood. They scraped across the floor. Mammoth bent over to pick up the weapons, but the moment he touched them, they glowed harshly red, and began to burn the skin on his hands. The oversized terrorist barked in surprise, and dropped my knives back to the ground.
"Release them," I growled.
Brother Blood smirked evilly. "I highly doubt that you are in the position to argue with me." He turned to two of his HIVE bots, and pointed our way. "Grab them, and hold them."
Cyborg and I growled as our hands were yanked behind our backs. A harsh kick to the back of our legs brought us down to our knees.
"It's not good luck to treat those who surrendered so willingly this harshly," Cyborg spat.
Somewhere in the background, a dim flash of pink lit up a can of paint, which somehow tipped over, and rolled off the rack.
"Who needs luck when you hold all the cards!" Blood joked sadistically.
The paint can landed on a board that was half sticking off of another shelf. The board flipped off the shelf, and both paint can and board fell at an awkward angle, right under the cage of a nearby forklift. The can hit the floor, bounced once, and landed upright on the gas pedal, mashing it to the ground. The board bounced off the gear shift, and knocked it into forward.
"Play nice," I snarled at Blood. "You'd hate to jinx your whole operation here."
The forklift lurched forward, and sped along the floor, unnoticed. The prongs on the front end glistened in the fluorescent lighting of the cavern.
"Who are you to tell me what the whims of fate and fortune have in store for me?" he shouted, his face turning red in frustration. "I have all every Titan left on the face of the planet under MY control!"
The prongs on the forklift slammed into an acetylene tank. The tank rocketed upwards, and exploded against the chains holding up one of the enormous cargo containers. The one cargo container that just happened to be swinging above the arc of HIVE bots that stood behind where Brother Blood screamed from. The HIVE's headmaster turned slowly, all color draining from his face as the chain snapped in the explosion, and the crate plummeted down. All he could do was stand and watch it drop.
-WHAM!-
His entire compliment of HIVE bots was instantly crushed under the weight of the container. Gizmo, Nightmare and Mammoth all spun around, distracted by the sudden noise. When they all turned around, both Cyborg and myself were forcing ourselves back to our feet.
"How…what did you do?"
I smirked against the pain of my twisting arms. "Just bad luck I guess."
The HIVE bots holding both of us suddenly began to glow bright pink. Cyborg flexed his arms, and the arms of the yellow droid were snapped clear off. I dropped forcefully to one knee, rolled forward, and kicked both legs straight up into the robot holding me. My feet connected directly into its center of mass, yet the entire thing literally shattered when I hit it.
Gizmo stared. "No freakin'…"
-SMACK-
A huge, red, plasma hand bitch-slapped the boy genius clear across the room. Nightmare and Mammoth both turned to see Argent gently float her way down from the rafters, while a pink streak of a Jinx jumped, flipped and fell gracefully to the floor.
"Hiya guys," Jinx purred. "Miss me?"
The mistress of bad luck flung her hands out, and hundreds of hex waves launched at her stunned ex-teammates.
My eyes shone solid silver, and even Cyborg backed slowly away from where I stood. An invisible wind kicked at my long hair, and scattered dust away from my feet. The chains holding Raven down snapped free of their own accord, and the rubberized restraints around Beast Boy literally melted. The two freed titans scrambled behind where Cyborg and I now stood defiantly, and took up their positions next to us. Argent and Jinx flanked the group…that now seemed pitifully small even in their own hanger.
Blood glared for a moment, then calmly reached into his pocket. He pulled a small silver cylinder out of his pocket, flipped it over, and pressed a large red button on the end of it.
"So sorry we couldn't stay to play, Titans." He sneered. "But you have five minutes to find the control room and shut down the self destruct mechanism before your precious city goes bye bye."
The group collectively glared at him.
"Four minutes and fifty seconds, kiddies. You might want to think about moving."
Cyborg swore. "C'mon, let's go find it. We need to have our priorities straight."
I stared after the Titans.
Cyborg and the others ran for the door.
My glare returned to Blood, Nightmare, and the rest of her gang.
They were smirking.
I wasn't. A scowl fell across my face.
Nightmare swallowed hard.
I growled, and burst forward in a silver flash. The only problem was, I didn't go after the rest of the Titans. I burnt in platinum fury across the floor, and Nightmare, Gizmo, and Mammoth could barely watch as I blurred past them. The world felt like it fell to slow motion as I murderously rushed the HIVE headmaster. He tried to gasp, but the wind was knocked from his lungs as a powerful elbow slammed into his chest. Brother Blood flew like a rag doll across the huge room, slamming painfully into the wall. I stood where he had been, ignoring the stunned HIVE students, my liquid metal stare glaring coldly at him.
The headmaster coughed blood as he pulled himself back to a sitting position. He looked at where I stood, his eyes laced with fear. I was still frowning. In front of his very vision, I literally vanished. He looked worriedly around the room, trying to find where I went, when I all but materialized next in front of him. My grip closed like iron on his collar, and my silver eyes burned as I stared into his. He tried to avert his gaze, but I jerked him back to looking in my eyes. My mind slammed against his violently as I tore through years worth of mental defense like it was paper.
He screamed in pain as my mental assault tore through his brain like a whirlwind. I didn't care what I destroyed, I didn't care if I damaged it, I needed to find that control room, and the fastest way to do that, is to ask the one that knows. If he wouldn't talk, it could always be forced from him.
Brother Blood shook in fear as my mind tore through his. Pain traveled in spikes up and down his spine and he could do nothing more than sit there and stare back into my liquid mercury eyes. Behind us, his students ran to protect him, but I neither acknowledged their presence, or cared. I would have what I needed before they would become a threat.
Nightmare was the first to reach us, and she brought her blade down at my back in a screaming arc.
I vanished from under her blades.
She barely managed to stop before cleaving her headmaster in two. The two stared at each other, panting hard, and both visibly shaking.