Chapter 13: The Hunt is on.
Beast Boy tensed. Beads of sweat appeared on his brow, and his left foot began twitching insanely. One slip up now and it would all be over. As he moved into position, he felt…strange…like all his senses were going into overdrive. He ignored the fact that he was now conscious of the feeling of his uniform on his skin, and moved his hands slowly. His gloves were off, something he rarely did. Retractable claws were his secret shame. But this was more important than dignity, and the gloves restricted his dexterity. As he placed the objects in their place, his twitching foot slammed into the table, ruining everything.
Beast Boy sighed as he watched his house of cards collapse around him, and resumed channel surfing.
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Raven's world slowly rebooted, hearing coming first. Echoes of metal clinking on metal. Her sense of touch was next in line. Manacles on her wrists and ankles. Fuck. Then, she opened her eyes, and colour slowly bled into her world. Her attention was drawn by the man with his back to her, observing a bank of monitors. She looked left and right, and saw her friends in similar situations, although none of them seemed to be awake yet. In the spirit of inquiry, she tried using her powers, but drew a blank. Typical. If she crossed her eyes, she could just see a gadget stuck to her chakra. This was looking uncomfortably like that…unpleasantness…with the Jackal, some six months back. She looked back at her captor, taking note of his gold epaulettes.
"…Immortus?"
"Surprised to see me, my dear?" The dry voice hacked.
"…A little. How in Trigon's name did you escape the ice?" Incredulity overtook Rage, for the moment.
"I have my ways."
Raven had always secretly been a little unnerved by Immortus. Here was a man that was not just at Death's door, he was well into the hallway, had hung up his coat and was admiring the novelty clock and umbrella stand.
"What are you planning?"
Immortus laughed as heartily as he could, which wasn't much. It sounded like he had a hacking cough. "I think I've been around a little too long to fall for that one, my dear."
Damn. Time for a different track. "You'll never get away with this."
"'You'll never get away with this.' How cliché. What's next? 'You're going to pay for this?' 'My friends will find you and stop you'? My dear, I've heard them all. And they've all been wrong. In any case, I should hope that the boy does find us. Revenge is sweet indeed."
Azarhe was annoying.
"He'll find you. And frankly, you're really going to wish he hadn't when he does." Raven proclaimed with more bravado than she felt.
Beast Boy, you'd better not make me a liar.
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Beast Boy was getting worried. Surely the others should be done by now? Either that, or Robin would have called for backup. Frowning, he accessed the main computer, looking for the communicator signals. The computer placed them all together, in the industrial district. Well, it couldn't do any harm to check up on them, could it?
Setting the coordinates on his communicator, Beast Boy set off after his friends.
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A green falcon swooped among the chimneys, searching for signs of the Titans. The rains had cleared, leaving a fresh afternoon. Normally Beast Boy would have savoured the fresh smell that lingered after the rain, but he was too concerned to allow such frivolities. As he neared the area his communicator had specified, he saw the gutted carcass of a gigantic war machine.
Well, there's one way of saying "I was here" Thought Beast Boy, as he went into a sharp nosedive.
But where are they now?
As he landed, he noticed a flash of yellow. Four circular objects were lying in the road. Oh shit. He breathed in, inhaling the scents that hung in the air, and praying there hadn't been too much civilian activity.
Okay…oil.. That'd be the robot here, or possibly Cyborg. Ah, the familiar smell of hair gel, the cheap sort. That's gotta be ol' spendthrift Robin. Some strange scent, definitely not human, definitely Starfire, and…incense, slight hint of must, and vanilla shampoo…
Beast Boy looked around in a panic. The lack of any obvious scent meant robots. Frantically he leapt onto the fallen behemoth, searching for any kind of clues. None. He breathed out a sigh of relief- Slade always identified his constructs. Composing himself, he shifted into a wolf, and followed the trail.
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If wolves could swear, then this one would have. Profusely. Whoever the mystery abductor were, they were evidently prepared for this sort of tracking. They had doubled back, crossed water by going over the small stream in the park, and now…
Of all the low tricks, aniseed bombs had to be the worst. Spray some concentrated aniseed scent anywhere where you know a lot of people will walk, and anyone tracking your scent is going to be completely lost. He knew the other scents (especially hers) were still there, but his nose wasn't sensitive enough to trace them. No animal's was. Except…
Beast Boy closed his eyes, preparing for the pain to come, and shifted.
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"So, what do you think you'll do against Beast Boy?" Raven asked, more to preoccupy herself than anything else.
"What makes you think I have to do anything?" Immortus asked mildly. "He will have to fight his way through an entire battalion before he becomes a threat, and the chances of that…well, let us just say that while stranger things have happened, they only happen when Mr. Mxyzplk is in town." Immortus smirked at this, before noticing that Raven wasn't looking at him, but over his shoulder.
"In that case, you should start looking for the omnipotent midget. He seems to be in town."
Immortus frowned. "You seem very confident. I cannot see why."
Raven grinned as she observed Immortus's CCTV monitors. It was a terrifying sight.
"That's because you can't see what I can see."
Any pithy comebacks left Immortus the second he stared at the carnage on the screens. The closest he got to coherent thought was gladness that he had invested in robotic soldiers.
It would have been quite messy, otherwise.