The Bird, The Boy, and the Beast
by Ace234
Chapter 2: "The Man With the Blue Hammer"
Two years after Chapter 1…It had been a bad day for the HIVE 5. They had not had a lot of sleep. Mammoth, unknown to them before very early this morning, was a habitual sleepwalker. And as it turned out, when he started sleepwalking, he would crash his massive body through any wall in his way, including Gizmo's favorite wall computer. So when the massive beast-man began a nightly stroll, it was not long before the HIVE's hangout had a few new breezeways between rooms. And to top it off, when Private Hive finally woke him up with a shield throw to the back of the head, a disoriented Mammoth pounded Gizmo and Seemore with his fists for two minutes until he finally regained control of all his faculties.
Breakfast had been no better. Jinx, rather sleep-deprived from the night before, cursed Seemore's eggs into his face, after accusing him of trying to use his heightened vision to see her showering that morning. Seemore could only reply that his lone very bruised eye could barely do anything following Mammoth's rampage the night before. Strangely enough, Mammoth felt well-rested though he was bothered that his teammates would do nothing but glare at him. Gizmo was still morning the loss of 2/3 of his computing power.
And so it was decided that the first business for the HIVE 5 for the morning would be a robbery of a hardware store with multiple objectives:
Obtain material to fix their walls. Jinx refused to stay another night if her walls remained that opened.
Obtain chains to bind Mammoth to bed for all future evenings. This passed on a 4-1 vote with strong feelings on both sides.
See what could be obtained to replace Gizmo's computer.
Seemore wanted to obtain video equipment to increase the place's security while they were fixing the walls. The team was at first skeptical, but when Seemore then noted that his plans would include the shower, the guys voted in favor 4-0. Oddly enough, the majority did not win this argument which may have had something to do with the purple-beam cursed pancakes that quickly laced their faces.
And it was so that 11:00 a.m. on a sunny Thursday morning that the HIVE 5 attacked Jump City Hardware & Electronics. The attack commenced with Private Hive's shield destroying the store window followed by Gizmo rocketing through on his jetpack and grabbing every computer chip he could find. Jinx yelled at Mammoth to grab the chains, which he did with much muttering under his breath. Seemore grabbed some drywall. Jinx helped herself to paint—already having decided to make Gizmo paint all the walls a purple/pink pattern.
It could be said the HIVE 5's day began to get worse when Private Hive's shield, on its return throw missed its mark and struck a passerby. The passerby was young man who was walking by oblivious to the mayhem ensuing next to him. He was a lad of about 17, wearing a large green backpack as one might see a hiker bringing with him on a long journey. He had dark red hair, cut short with only a few stray hairs hanging over his forehead (plus the few dislodged when Private Hive's shield hit him). He fell and hit the pavement with a "Oof!" that was totally ignored by today's villains. Private Hive ran over to him, grabbed the shield, and ran back into the store to scare the customers some more.
The previously mentioned young man, after recovering from being struck from behind by the misthrown boomerang-shield, picked himself off the pavement and brushed himself off. He wore a black windbreaker with a single, bold, think stripe that ran from his right shoulder down to his left hip and back up the opposite direction on its rear side. His pants were also black with a belt of solid linked metal rectangles around them. On the belt was a small metal box attached via a magnet. His shoes were small, black hiking boots with red laces. He wore red gloves with black tips at the knuckles. Under his open jacket was a black T-shirt. After brushing himself off, he looked around as if nothing was wrong, only now nonchalantly turning towards the store behind him.
He turned around and walked toward the store, stopping by where the main window had been. Then addressing, the Hive 5 he calmly said:
"Excuse me? Hey! Hey! Excuse me? Would someone mind explaining to me why I was just knocked to the ground by a flying metal object?"
The HIVE 5 continued their rampage. Gizmo was flying around the room in circles searching for a decent processor. Jinx was deciding whether she liked violet or "new purple" better. Seemore was searching for video equipment. Mammoth was going very slow finding chains, searching for the weakest metal possible. Private Hive was tormenting the cashier with a wedgie.
It slowly dawned on the stranger that the HIVE 5 was looting the place and were not representative of this new city he was in.
"Hey! Hey! Anybody mind telling where the heck I am?"
The stranger said that loud enough that it drew the HIVE 5's attention. They stopped looting and turned around to see who would actually be stupid enough to stop them mid-rampage.
The stranger looked up to notice the store sign, "Okay, Jump City, got it! Now back to my original question: For what reason did you he pointed at Private Hive decide to hit me with that shield?"
This question only stunned the HIVE 5 further. They regularly hurt people without reason. That's what young villains do when they're bored. Gizmo, flew down to hover in front of the stranger, "Oh yeah, Snuzwucker? What's it to you?" A menacing metal hand reached out from his metal pack holding an even more menacing metal hammer.
The stranger looked at Gizmo, the hammer, then Gizmo again. "That's a nice hammer, want to see mine?" He quickly began to close his right fist but before he could close it all the way a small spark of blue energy emerged from the palm of his glove, without warning it materialized into a shining blue mallet about two feet long with a large striking head. The stranger then, without moving his eyes from Gizmo, swung the hammer above his head and planted it firmly on the side of Gizmo's.
Gizmo was sent flying into a nearby display of motor oil. The stranger slowly re-opened his hand and the mallet he was holding disappeared. Private Hive turned toward the stranger yelling, "Now you're gonna get it!" Private Hive launched his shield at the stranger with great force.
The stranger leaped back away from the window as the shield came hurdling through the opening. "This thing again?" he questioned. He raised his hand a blue spark of energy appeared again. It materialized into a round blue shield that glowed with same energy as the spark and the former hammer. Private Hive's shield bounced harmlessly off the stranger's and recoiled to Private Hive's hand. "Looks like mine was better." The stranger re-opened his hand and the blue shield disappeared.
Enraged, Private Hive charged at the stranger, but the stranger closed his hand again and another blue spark appeared. This time it was in the form of a solid blue ball that flew out of the stranger's hand attached to a shining light blue metal chain that was emitted from the stranger's palm. The ball crashed into Private Hive's chest, sending him flying backwards into Seemore, who was secretly lining up the Jinx in the sights of his latest camera find, trying to find the best resolution.
Jinx yelled at the stranger, "You're all out of luck now!" She launched a jinxing wave at him which exploded the road in front of his feet, sending him flying backwards. Jinx laughed. The stranger rolled to the side and threw his backpack to the side. His hands flashed blue energy again and a sharp arrow point emerged from his hand. This point flew at a target above Jinx's head. Like the solid blue ball before it, this blue point was attached to a cord that came from the stranger's hand. The blue point collided with a paint can above Jinx's head, sending canary yellow paint cascading onto the young witch's head and blouse.
The stranger's victory was short-lived, however, as a chain rapped around his arms. Mammoth, unseen by the stranger, had thrown one of the very chains he was disliking to gather around the stranger and was pulling him towards his mighty fists. The stranger, his arms bound to his sides, ducked one punch, dodged a second, but was sent reeling backwards by Mammoth's swinging forearm. Mammoth charged at the stranger and leaped into the air.
Rolling on the ground and unable to get the chains off, the stranger's left hand emitted another spark of blue energy, a where his hand had been a blue rotating circular saw appeared attached to his wrists. He quickly used this to cut through the chains binding him and leaped backwards away from the pouncing Mammoth. As Mammoth leaped in the air again with a fierce roar, seeking to squash the red-haired newcomer, the saw disappeared from the stranger's left hand as both hands began to emit energy. Quick as a flash, both sparks of energy materialized into two large pistons (kind of like a battering ram) where his hands had been. Sticking his right one up, the piston extended powerfully hitting Mammoth square in the stomach and sending the behemoth rolling into the store wall. Private Hive re-emerged charging at the stranger who quickly extended the powerful left piston so that it pummeled Private Hive in the jaw.
"Now I'm really upset," screamed a now very-yellow Jinx as she launched another wave of energy, exploding the road yet again in front of the stranger. "Do you really think you can beat all five of us? Do you really think I'm going to let your get away from DOING THIS TO MY HAIR?" As she screamed, the stranger picked himself off the ground only to discover Gizmo had gotten all the motor oil out of his circuits in time to extend his metal frame so that four large spider-like legs were lifting him high off the ground. From Gizmo's wrist, a laser had appeared. Jinx ran out of the store behind him. "Where's Seemore?" she yelled. Seemore ran out behind her, trying to conceal the mini-camcorder behind his back.
The stranger's right hand glowed again and a blue energy shield took the place of the right piston that quickly blocked a laser shot from Gizmo. The left piston he retracted and re-extended to hit a twirling (and still very yellow) Jinx, who dodged it with a cartwheel. The little witch fired a hexing curse at the stranger sending him rolling towards the opposite end of the road. Seemore launched one of his capture eyes which encased the stranger in the transparent bubble (though his eye was still very sore from Mammoth's assault early that morning).
"This is just great," said the stranger as the HIVE 5 bore down on him. "They're rude and powerful. Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed."
"I'll say," said Mammoth, as he charged the stranger head on.
So what happens next? Who is the stranger? Will Jinx ever get the yellow out of her hair? What about Ragnarok—what's up with Chapter 1? How do you dare put a Teen Titans-less chapter in a Teen Titans fanfic? Well, they'll be back! That's what Chapter 3 is for! Please R&R!