Chapter 17
The dull clunk of metal boots resounded in the metal hallways, lights and doors flashing by, blurring. Cyborg gritted his teeth, putting on an extra burst of speed. Jinx huffed to keep up with him, Sneak nestled in her hair. "Sub. Sub! Where are Rae and B.B.? Subtraho!"
Static.
---
Beast Boy watched the flickering text, mumbling slightly as he read swiftly. His finger stayed for a moment. "The…Second Apocalypse?"
Raven glanced over his shoulder, her hood shadowing her eyes. "Yes. That was nearly a millennia ago." She glanced at him briefly. "What? You didn't study this?"
The animorph grinned sheepishly. "I…uh, didn't figure I'd need to know."
She made an exasperated noise. "The First Apocalypse was…well, no one's really sure what exactly it was. It seemed more like a copulation of disease, war, and mysterious genocides." Leaning back, she rubbed her robe between her fingers, feeling the smooth material. "It was as if the whole world went crazy in the space of three years. Countries were totally wiped out on Old Earth. Some of the colonies still have memorials to honor the soldiers who died." The dark girl tapped the holo-monitor. "But was really weird were the mass killings. That's why most of the people died…or vanished. Scientifically speaking, it was unheard of. People were lying in the streets, the other halves of their bodies shorn off with a perfect precision, the other halves gone. Buildings were sliced up, but there wasn't any rubble. Nothing added up." Raven paused, staring at the screen, her eyes blank and dull. "There's a saying. 'And Lo, Koshchei filled his storehouses with men's souls, for he had none of his own.'"
Beast Boy shuddered suddenly, the hairs on his neck rising. "Koshchei?"
"The Grim Reaper's Russian cousin."
"Ah." Beast Boy stared at a spot on the ceiling. "And the Second Apocalypse?"
Raven sighed,chewing onher lip. "It's supposed to be a thousand times worse."
"Great," snorted the animorph. "So, we got a psycho who wants to bring about a second Ragnarok. Ain't we lucky."
She smirked then, bending her head slightly so that he wouldn't see the half-smile. "The way I see it, this is perhaps the best way to go. The world's, Old Earth, all life will be wiped clean." Dark red began to glow behind her irises, casting a dull red light on Beast Boy's cropped hair. A slow chuckle yanked itself out of her mouth, startling her. Raven gasped, swallowing it back, her voice thick and deep, her eyes glowing brighter.
Beast Boy turned, starting half out of his chair. "Uh, Rae. You're eyes supposed to shine like Christmas lights?"
She lowered her hood further, grabbing her mouth, stifling a scream, her voice now normal. Stumbling, she slammed into the wall behind her, her eyes wide as the light dimmed. "I…" The dark girl stared straight forward before slumping to her knees. "Oh-no," she stammered.
Raven felt a hand on her shoulder, making her twitch. She looked up.
"You feel his pull." It wasn't a question. An uncharacteristic resolution crept into the animorph's eyes, his eyes emerald crystals. Slowly, he lowered himself and stared into her dark hood, searching for her face. "You also don't have to do it alone."
Raven sniffed once, cleared her throat, and turned the hood away. "Surrender is never easy, Beast Boy. It's something I can't do. Don't ask me again." She stood slowly, the cape hanging limply off her shoulders, as if she'd grown old and shrunk to accommodate all the woes of the worlds. "But I appreciate it." She paused, then turned towards the door. "Just so you know."
Beast Boy sighed, his ears drooping. "Yeah."
The communicator beeped at them. Both stared at it for a few long seconds, before Beast Boy moved towards it.
---
"Where are you guys?" Cyborg panted harshly into the communicator, glancing about him hurriedly, klaxon sirens blaring all about them.
"Uh, upstairs. We got some informa-"
"Good. Great. Can Raven sense us?"
Static. Then, "She says yeah."
"Warp here. Now. We're running blind and we need Rae to sense people."
Static. "B.B.?"
"Ksssssh…YeaaaaaKsssskggggghhhhKsssshhhn…Ven, run! The…Kssssshh…can't hold th…Ksssh…AaaaaaaghhhKsssssssshhhh…"
The communicator cut off. Cyborg swore under his breath and ran, nearly dragging Jinx along.
---
"This isn't going very well for them, is it, my friend?" The single eye stared, bored, at the screens. The spherical room was bright, a hundred thousand lights hanging from the cavernous ceiling, glaring down at the massive pedestal surrounded by the black abyss. Here sat Slade, staring at the walls of monitors, his fingers steepled, his face hidden by the foreboding cowl.
The room grew cold for a moment. Something was inside the room, hanging back in the shadows, breathing shakily. The shadow laughed raspingly, before shivering slightly, a hollow sound much like hard pieces of wood rattled as he shook. He didn't speak, but simply watched the screens, his eyes pinpoints of blood red light.
"My sentiments exactly," hummed Slade, tapping a few keys. "Let's get things moving, hm?"
A powerful clanging rattled through some room far above. Slade simply smirked and kept on typing.
---
The hallway...lurched. Jinx lost her balance and fell on her butt promptly, squeaking slightly. Cyborg kept his legs, but wobbled just the same. Slowly, they felt as if they were slowly turning, the clunk and clatter of powerful gears below them resounding in the tight-packed corridor. His human eye widened suddenly, before grabbing Jinx by the arm and turning towards the end of the hall they had entered through. Unfortunately, that doorway had been converted into a solid metal wall moving slowly past their eyes. Cyborg streaked the air blue with oaths, Jinx trembling just slightly behind him. Sneak, however, seemed to be preoccupied, his ears flicking about. "Ain't good, frien's," he said suddenly. "Go other way. We find way out, maybe. Dun't tink ye'll like what ya find when the hall stops on dis end. Big noises comin'. Claws on metal. No' good."
Cyborg stared at him, then smirked. "Guess you're useful for something other than crawlin' through tight spaces."
Sneak simply puffed out his cheeks indignantly, before hurriedly pointing down the way.
The slowing gears prompted them to action, metal blurring as they ran madly. A small opening began to open on both ends of the hall. A massive shadow growled suddenly from the doorway they had just left. With a few more seconds, it clattered into the corridor, before lifting itself on its hindlegs and sniffing the air, massive jaws clacking together as spots of drool spattered on the metal floor. No one could see what it was, and didn't intend to find out.
All three stumbled into the massive room. They stopped abruptly. Jinx's eyes widened. It's was a giant sphere. The entire room looked like the inside of a ball, hundreds of thousands of monitors flickering off the walls. The catwalk they stood on jutted into the exact epicenter, before widening into a large circular platform.
And there, Raven and Beast Boy hung, suspended above the ground, their wrists manacled and tied to poles. Scarlet rivers dripped of their bodies, plopping to an ever-growing puddle beneath them. Only Raven looked up slowly, her hair shadowing her face. Coughing up some blood, her lips moved feebly. "Ge-get…out." It was barely audible. Beast Boy simply groaned, struggling faintly in the chains.
Cyborg took a step forward, his eye wide, before Jinx gripped his arm and turned him around.
The large creature had caught up, and was simply sitting in the doorway, its jaw working up and down, its claws rapping against the cold floor. Then, it laughed a high, hyena-like laugh, before standing again. All at once, one could see the terribly deformed humanoid features. "Sssssoooooo, like mice to the cheese on the trap." He grins suddenly, falling on all fours. He was perhaps once a human. Now, he was a shaggy, twisted brute with lethal metal spikes fused to the skin on his back and arms, all rippling with inhuman muscles. Thin, long, blood-dripping claws fused to the top knuckles of his fingers clacked as he paced, his long, canine-like face snapping long jaws, metal capped teeth snipping at the air. "Too bad it'sssss not I who has the pleasure of rending you apart."
Wordlessly, Cyborg turned on his sonic cannon, aiming squarely for the beast's head. "That's my friend's blood you're sporting," he said grimly, his face a mass of straight lines. "And blood jus' cries for vengeance." The sonic discharge was massive, the blue aftershock shattering several monitors and shaking the foundations of the platform. Cyborg strained, pouring thousands of gigawatts behind the blast, his aim rock-steady.
The beast yelped once, like a wounded dog, the sonic cannon sending him head over heels, his sharp spikes slashing holes into the metal floor. Pushed backwards into the corridor, he fell on his back spikes, his head suspended over slightly above the ground. Slowly, he looked up, his face a mess of blood and shattered bones. Shards of his cheek and nose poked through the fur grotesquely. He tried a grin, but his lips had split. Then, without sigh nor curse, he simply passed out.
Lowering the gun, Cyborg refigured it into his hand, before glancing back at Jinx.
Instead, he met a fist. The power was enough to lift his entire titanium frame a foot off the ground, before he fell in a jumble of clanking metal and blood. Sliding a few feet along the metal, he groaned, before standing slowly, his face dibbling scarlet. Brushing blood from his eye, he simply stared at his attacker, before glancing down at his chest.
A small timer clicked into position before spewing electric over the android's body. He didn't yell, but simply writhed in pain, sparks flickering off his teeth, falling to his knees. Moments before he passed out, Cyborg finally roared his desperation and pain, before merciful gloom veiled his eyes.
Jinx stared horrified at the smoking Cyborg. A strong hand finally released her mouth, and gripped her shoulder.
"This was a foolhardy attempt, you know," hissed Slade's voice in her ear. "For you see, life is swayed towards its end," he hummed, pressing a pressure point in her neck, "when you have Death on your side."
The small girl slumped slowly in his arms, unable to move as lights danced across her vision.
Slade laughed in soft scorn.
Um...Hi. Yeah. Long wait. Sorry. I ain't Post. :P
Anyway, yeah. Big things. Originally, this was going to be so much smaller, but my brain decides it wants something better. Phwa, all my short stories turn out long.
I blameyou people. Hehe.
Ahem. Anyway, Star and Night wing fight scene in my head. I'm not going to tell you what happens, but that's a given. But make some guesses. I love listening to those.
On a side note, I'd like to thank those people who wanted to be my Beta's but, I don't think I really can contain myself once I finish a story. And the massive gaps between updates are rather sad anyway. I probably lost a great deal of people, if I had a great many anyway. Hehe.
Um, I hope you enjoyed it.
Review, or I shall withhold shiny stuff.
Or maybe I'll do it anyway.
-Raz