Zatrion presents…

Of Ninjas, Titans, and Specters

I don't own Teen Titans, Ninja Turtles, or Mortal Kombat. Tek-NOS, Nekros, Talleon, Tim, and Zatrion are mine however.

Note: "Talking", Thinking, "Mind Speak", Communicator

Chapter 4: By Any Means Necessary

Jump City Streets – 9:20 AM

What is that ruckus? After being knocked out for twenty minutes, Tim finally wakes up. Matter of fact, what is this? He is staring at the Tesla Field in front of him. Looking around himself, he sees this strange field all around him. Not realizing what it is or the effects that it caused, he flexes out one of his fingers to touch it. When he touches it, he is flooded with a small electrical charge, similar to that from static electricity. With a gasp, he retracts his hand and looks down at it. He can see small blisters forming, as well as small burn marks. Rule 1: Don't touch anything odd unless asked to.

Ignoring his current situation, Tim looks out and sees Tek-NOS blasting a girl in the chest. At that moment, his already fragile mind snapped. He begins to pound upon the barrier, yelling out, "You coward!" Tek-NOS and the Titans didn't hear him due to the massive plasma blast. Ignoring the pain from slamming his fists into the field, he watches in horror as the girl is launched up and back through the air, crashing into a building quite a ways away, and leaving a massive crash mark on said building. Moments later, she falls to the ground, landing on a car and crushing it. Tim looks away, tears in his eyes. It seems that anyone that associates themselves with me is courting death. Perhaps I should stop this by any means necessary.

"I'm sorry for what I did, but I merely acted in self-defense." If Tek-NOS could smirk, he would. As a fleeting thought, he thought that he could recreate his body to mimic humans, making him indistinguishable from others. Perhaps some organic skin over a redesigned chassis…

"Self-defense!? I call that murder!" Robin is shocked by Tek-NOS' nonchalant remark. It was as if he knew that the Titans couldn't hurt him, despite what was done already.

"I guarantee that she is still alive, although she might need some new clothing. Your clothing is pathetically weak." Turning around he notices that Tim is awake. "Interesting, you were to be out for another forty minutes." He takes note of this and readjusts the formula in his remaining tranquilizer darts. How can one made of flesh and bone be able to get up? Fleshy creatures such as him should not be able to do such things. Tek-NOS' thoughts border on the edge of anger, a human emotion he wished he could fully get rid of.
"Never mind that, what do you want from me?" Tim looks up at this metallic monstrosity, and could literally sense the anger and confusion in him. How can that be? It's just a machine.

"For now, I need your coat. It seems that I used a bit too much energy in that plasma blast and inadvertently disintegrated her top." He notices that the boy is looking at him, puzzled. "What? She deserves some modesty at the very least."

"A bad guy who can fight mercilessly, but still believes in modesty. Now I think that I've seen it all." He mutters to himself. "O-kay, I guess that I can do that, provided you release me from this… container. I know you expect me to run, but I won't."

"Do I look like an idiot to you? I know that you want to leave badly, but if that were to occur, I would chase after you, and this cycle would continue. I don't have the time, or patience, for that."

"Is that other person beginning to rub off on you, or are you just extremely paranoid to begin with? Speaking of which, where is that creepy guy?"

"…Very well. I will release you from this containment unit. If you run, however, I will dart you again." Tek-NOS puts up his left arm, and a micro-dart launcher pops out from beneath it. "And this one will be guaranteed to keep you down for well over 24 hours."

"I give you my word that I won't run away." With these words, the barrier surrounding him dissipates, but the discs remain. The discs soon attached to Tim. Damn. "Let me guess, these discs contains something that monitors my actions."

"Correct."

"I can also guess that they stay on as long as you still function."

"Right again."

"And if I wander too far away, would these discs do something?"
"You would receive a minor shock. Thank you for reminding me."

"I thought that machines can't forget."

"Who said I was entirely a machine?"

"AAAGH!" Robin begins to rush towards Tek-NOS, all semblance of strategy gone. He pulls out his collapsible Bo staff, holds it as if it was a baseball bat and pulls his arms back.

"I suggest that you move away from me, lest you get hurt." Tek-NOS looks towards his recently released target. He notices that the boy looks at him in an odd fashion, but nods his head. "If you could, please give the girl I blasted your coat."

Tim begins to run towards the massively damaged area, pulling off his coat. What is that guy's problem? He's a machine, yet still shows emotions, and has a code of ethics. What sort of screwed-up place is this town? When he reaches Starfire, he begins to blush uncontrollably. I nearly forgot that I have never seen any real girls, much less… His thought stops abruptly with one look at her. Oh my…This is awkward, to say the least. He tries to avert his eyes, but is too late. He looks at her, his eyes focused on her chest going up and down, up and down. At least she is breathing. With that attempt to turn what seemed to be lecherous into something with concern, he begins to put his coat on her, ignoring the shiver in his back and the growing heat in his lower extremities. Once the coat is put on (and zipped up), he decides to duck behind a nearby dumpster. "Damn, I lost my glasses. At least I can see without them."

While Tim finishes with his problems, Robin's problems are just beginning. He begins to attack Tek-NOS without any forethought or strategy, raining down repeated blows upon his metallic skull with the collapsible Bo staff. Deciding to play along, Tek-NOS bends his head with accordance to the blows. With each fierce blow to the right side of his head, it would snap fiercely to the left. Each thrust struck, he would snap his head back. After being hit well over 30 times, Tek-NOS prepares for Robin's final assault. This human is so predictable.

Not realizing that he was playing into Tek-NOS' hands, Robin begins to let loose with his final attacks. With enough force to break stone, he strikes the metallic menace in the back of the neck, breaking the Bo. Continuing his charade, Tek-NOS drops to his knees. This didn't stop him, however. Jumping up in the air, he delivers a devastating roundhouse kick to the left side of the head. If Tek-NOS were human, his neck would most likely be broken by the force of said kick. Although not human, Tek-NOS is put on his back, but only because he chose to.

"Robin, he's just toying with you!" Raven yells to the Teen Wonder. Unfortunately, her warning went unheeded as he continued to attack recklessly.

"Rob's got this in the bag, Rae." Beast Boy looks at the pale girl with a look saying, What are you thinking? "Just look at the damage that he's dishin' out."

"But with each strike, he's getting weaker, and Tek-NOS hasn't lost any energy."

"She's right, BB. I've been keeping tabs on this, and while it looks like Robin has the upper hand, Tek-NOS has been waiting for him to get too exhausted to fight." Cyborg preps his sonic cannon.

"Cy, will that be necessary?" The green teen looks at his friend as if he was crazy.

"Just shut up and change for battle."

While all of this arguing is occurring, Robin picks up one part of his broken Bo and advances to Tek-NOS. Still entrenched in his chaotic thoughts, he positions himself over the head of the mechanical maelstrom. "So you think you can get away with hurting her, do you? Do you? Huh? Huh? Huh?" With each question, the enraged teen strikes the head. Still unfinished, Robin pulls up the remains of the Bo, with his grip focused at the top.

This isn't supposed to happen were Tek-NOS' last thoughts before Robin plunged his weapon deep into the left eye of the cyber criminal.

1111

In the Netherrealm…

Noob looks once more into the realm viewer crystals, observing the strike just inflicted on Tek-NOS. His theatrics will cost him dearly.

"Too true, Noob." Talleon enters the Dorfen, seemingly at his peak.

"Completed already, Master? I thought you said an hour at the least." Noob is surprised, to say the least.

"I forgot to say an hour in my realm's time. You should know that all realms function on different sets of time. So how long was I gone?" Talleon asks.

"6 minutes."

Talleon then proceeds to stroke his beard, whose length would put Merlin's beard to shame. "Interesting, but that must wait. How does Tek-NOS fare?"

"The boy with the cape just impaled him in the eye." Noob shudder involuntarily at such an action.

"It is of no concern. All that will do is infuriate him. I have seen it many times before."

"I shall give you the benefit of the doubt, Master. However, I believe that we should accelerate our plans."

"I expected as much. Tell me, is it because I am at full power, Noob?" Talleon turns to the crystal and waits for an answer. A moment of silence then Noob speaks.

"Of course. I wouldn't tell a lie to you, Master."

"To say I am surprised is an understatement. Few tell me the truth, and even fewer mean it." Talleon looks to his new charge and thinks; He truly is becoming a worthy successor. Perhaps I can do away with most of the more… useless lessons. "I do agree with your course of action. However, I feel that that assistance would be prudent to our cause."

"Will such assistance lead to overkill?" Noob looks at his master.

"Living for as long as I have, you learn there is NO such thing as overkill."

Jump City Streets – 9:25 AM

X'hal, what hit me? This was the first thought that came to mind when Starfire awoke. Why is there a coat on me, she thinks as she looks down for any injuries. She decides to unzip the coat and sees why she has the clothing article. In a state of embarrassment, she zips the coat back up. Looking up, she sees Robin moving away from that mechanical monstrosity. "Robin!"

"Star, you're okay!" Robin then proceeds to run to her, while she floats to him, her arms open. When they reach, they come together in a powerful embrace. "I was afraid I lost you." His eyes are filled with tears as he touches her hair (Her hair, so fierce, yet soothing) with the back of his right hand.

"You will never lose me, as long as we are together." She takes his right hand into both of hers and brings them to her chest. "Nothing can stop what we have for each other." Looking up to his face, she sees that his face turned bright red and his eyes are glazed over. "Are you unwell?"

Snapping out of his trance, Robin replies, "I'm fine Star. But before we finish our declarations for each other, we have to apprehend Tek-NOS."

"Agreed." With these words, the two set out towards the rest of the team.

While the Titans regrouped, Tim waited for any action from Tek-NOS. Although he saw no form of movement, he decided to stay put. Some feeling in his gut told him that Tek-NOS was far from finished. After seeing the disks still attached to him, he knew he couldn't leave.

While the Titans were conversing, Raven was asked to search the alleys for the boy. After a short period of time, she finds the boy, hiding behind a dumpster, his head between his legs.

"What do you want?" Raven is thrown off by the voice of the boy. It seemed to be hollow, but filled with emotion. The boy's head turns up to the purple-haired empathic. "Well, are you going to say something or stare at me?" His voice suddenly goes sarcastic, almost lulling her into silence.

"The battle's over. You can come out now." She replies.

"You and I both know better than that. He's probably biding his time, waiting for you to become lax."

"Are you sure?"

With those words, Tek-NOS screamed, not of pain or fear, but of anger. How can one unpowered teenager do what the most powerful Elite had trouble doing? He went into a temporary shutdown in order to assess current damage. Perhaps I should stop toying with these "Heroes" and complete my objective, by any means necessary. Once he fully processed these thoughts, he sat up with the remains of the Bo still in his eye.

"What are you, the Terminator?" Beast Boy asked this question.

"I am afraid I do not follow you, but I will now terminate you and your team with extreme lethality." With these words, he turns his right arm into the plasma cannon.

"Titans, take out that cannon!" Robin pulls out more of his explosive discs while yelling out the orders.

With the orders given, Beast Boy charges at Tek-NOS in his rhino form. Anticipating such an action, Tek-NOS jumps over the green teen and fire off a dart from his left arm towards the neck. Sensing the dart, Beast Boy turns into a mouse, the dart missing his neck by a considerable amount. What he didn't realize is that Tek-NOS, despite his anger, is able to think ahead, and expected that he would change into something small in order to dodge the attack. So while Beast Boy dodged the attack with ease, he had no idea that Tek-NOS was preparing to stomp on him.

Cyborg saw this and used his sonic cannon. "No one stomps on my boy!" The blast doesn't even phase Tek-NOS, but it allows Beast Boy to change his shape into a gorilla and kick Tek-NOS into the air. Once he is in the air, Starfire charges in, grabs him with one hand and strikes him with her fists. While she doesn't enjoy this, she realizes that using her Starbolts will only make him stronger, and he is too much of a threat already. After a dozen powerful fists to the face, she releases him and clenches her hands together and brings them down over his neck. He plummets to the ground, only to land on one knee and with one arm outstretched. Standing up, he notices the ground is littered with various explosive devices, all primed to explode.

"Well…" At that moment, all of the explosives blow with enough force to level a 10 story building made of steel.

"Is it over?" Starfire lands, holding her very bruised hands. She is able to break stone and easily dent steel if properly motivated without any adverse effects. This is a testament to how powerful Tek-NOS' armor was.

"Hopefully, since I don't have anything else." Robin looks at her, and finally notices the coat. "What's with the coat, Star?"

"I woke up with this on me. I wasn't sure why until I tried to remove it."

"Why didn't you remove it?" Robin asks.

"Let's just say it is better that I leave it on."

Robin looks at her, wondering what she means when his eyes widen suddenly. "You don't mean…" His face is absolutely red in embarrassment.

"Yes, I am afraid that I lost 'it'." She says this in a low voice as to not be heard. Her face, although very tanned already, also shows a hint of a blush.

1111

While Robin and Starfire have their discussion, Cyborg and Beast Boy look for Raven. They eventually find her in an alleyway, along with the boy that Tek-NOS captured.

"Rae, where were you?" Cyborg asks, "Or better yet, why were you here?"

"I figured it would be prudent to find him." She points her thumb behind her, to the boy.

"Just don't scare us like that from now on, OK?"

"No guarantees there."

While they talk, Beast Boy heads towards the boy, seeing that he hasn't moved at all. "Are you alright?" He is relieved to see the boy's head turn up towards him.

I swear, I am going to hate that question for the rest of my life. "Just what are you 3 supposed to be?" Tim surveys who spoke to him, and finds 3 people who are quite different from normal. One of them is a black teenager who is mostly machine. The one who spoke to him a moment ago is female, wearing a black leotard, a purple cloak, and has a red gem on her head. The one speaking to him now appears to be the most normal, save for the fact that he is entirely green and is in a black and purple outfit. If anything, I'd say I had lost my mind.

"Dude, you don't know who we are? Where have you been living, under a rock? We're the Teen Titans!" Beast Boy looks down at the boy and notices the blank stare.

"Teen what now?" Man, what sort of trash was in that Tranq? Now I'm seeing things, and speaking with them

"We defend the city from all sorts of problems. Don't you watch TV?"

"No."

Staring at the boy in shock, Beast Boy asks, "What about the radio? Don't you listen to the radio?"

"Don't have one."

"Computer?"

"What's that?"

"Cy, I don't believe this." Beast Boy turns to his closest male friend, his mouth agape.

"What?" Asks the titanic teen.

"This kid has never watched TV, listened to the radio, or even heard of a computer."

"WHAT!? Man, this kid has been deprived. He had to have some form of entertainment while growing up." Cyborg shakes in head, utterly confused.

"Maybe he reads." Raven spoke, causing the boy to clinch together.

"I said entertainment, not torture, Rae." Cyborg replies jokingly. Beast Boy begins to chuckle, earning a stern glare from Raven.

Just when she begins to retort, the communicator beeps. "You're lucky you're my friends." Pulling it out from a pocket in her cape, she opens it. "Raven here."

"Raven, where are Cyborg and Beast Boy?" The boy listens intently. He can tell right away that the one calling this "Raven" seems to command authority.

"Right by my side, Robin. Is the situation taken care of?"

"It looks like it. Did you find the boy?" So the authoritative one is called Robin, thought the boy. Sounds a bit femmish to me.

She stares down at Tim, her purple eyes focused on him. "I'm looking at him."

"Bring him out. I think we should get him home now."

"Good idea." With those words, she closes her communicator.

"I'm not going out." The boy says. Raven looks at him in a state of shock, her face echoed by her comrades.

"Ah, come on man. No one's going to hurt you." Cyborg walks towards him when the boy finally stands up.

"Don't patronize me. Besides, I know that that… thing isn't done yet."

"Oh, really. Why's that?"

"These discs on me aren't a sign of fashion. These allow him to keep tabs on me and cannot be taken off. They only come off when he can no longer function."

"And since they're still on, then…"

"Tek-NOS is still capable of fighting." Raven finishes Cyborg's sentence. "Beast Boy, go out to Robin and Starfire and tell them to be on guard."

"Got it!" With those words, Beast Boy transformed into a cheetah and sprinted out.

"I suggest that you two should also head out. From what I was hearing, you might need all the power you can muster."

"What about you?" Raven once again looks at the boy, only to see him sit back down on the ground and put his hands on either side of his head.

"I guess I'll just wait here for whoever beats who senseless."

Deciding to do what is prudent, the two Titans head out.

Most likely, it will be you, I'm afraid, thinks Tim. With a sigh, his head is once again between his knees. God, if you're there, please tell me what I did to piss you off.

1111

Now, I know that some of you wish to ask "If he never watches TV, how can he know what 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' is about, or if he even heard about it?" You see, he tended to sneak out when his father was at work, and the newest one has just been advertised in the newspaper as "released in time for Halloween" last year. So, while his father was out, he took money that he saved up and headed out to see it. He was 17 at the time, but the usher wanted to ID him. Undaunted, Tim pulled out his father's old ID card and identified himself as his son. Satisfied, he let Tim pass through. He was able to watch the whole movie, but realized that these types of movies didn't fit him. Once he got home, he waited for his father to arrive.

1111

Wow. Only 5 chapters and I reached over 11,000 words. This is quite a feat for me, since I rarely do actual story-based writing. This is actually exhilarating. I feel that my stories will be looked upon favorably in the coming years. Or that could just be gas, I don't know. But I still find this to be a great way to pass the time.

1111

REVIEW, AND REJOICE!