Summary: Follow the adventures of Slack, Red, Lightlad, Tag, Blizkid and Sev members of the newly organized Teen Titans H.C defending Hallow City from the perilous dangers it faces day-in-day-out. They'll have to face an assorted array of villains including, A psychotic gang lead by a team of super powered teens, a deadly bounty hunter with a mysterious link to one of the Titans, a bloodthirsty werewolf willing to turn any one in his way into a midnight snack and a multi billion dollar genetics corporation that's not all that it seems to be, to name a few. But their most dangerous threats come from facing and overcoming each others assorted pasts as a team. Expect tons of guest appearances by the original Titans as well as other D.C. Comics heroes and villains.
Welcome back Ladies an' Gent's, Like before I'll be your host for this chapter (as well as all others previous and upcoming) and would like to take the time to welcome you all to a New Year (Of chapters that is) and hope that you all had a fun and productive winter break. Now that that's out of the way let's get to some fun shall we?
As alway's I'll take the next five hundred to a thousand words to give you an up-to-date list of things goin' down in my 'hood' (did I say that right? I'm not to Up-To-Date with these Hip Hop trends)
First off, I'd like to apoligize for any confusion reggarding the fact that last chapter I said it was a two parter (at the time that chapter was too long and I thought I'd have to break it into two's but as it turns out it wasn't) instead this chapter and the next one will be the two parters, meaning that last chapter was a completely seperate chatpter. Just clearing things up in case any of you were confused.
Secondly, a formal apology to Splint (as well as anyone else) whose/who have been waiting paitently for action. This chapter was way too long to fit into one chapter (Hence the Two-Parter) so I had to break it up into two different chapters, Part two is going through some major edits, rewrites and finishing touches and should be posted sometime in the next couple of days...or weeks.
Thirdly, reggarding the length of this chapter. This chapter went through the most dramatic amount of changes, edits, tweeks and other crap, of all the chapters combined. The first draft for this chapter alone had twelve thousand words and that was only half done, so I had to cut tons of crap out which brings me to...
...Fourthly, This chapter (as I said above) went through more than thirteen edits, which include me cutting more than five thousand words from it, so proggression in this chapter will be choppy and fast paced, I apoligize for the crappiness that is this chapter but I just couldn't include everything I wanted into it, so yeah...it's a peice of crap just to let you know.
Fifthly, I picked up a new "Show Of The Month" (Over There didn't last that long), This time Instead of a psychologically disturbing and emotionally stressing drama I found a 'fun for the whole family' comedy series The Office (The U.S. version that is), the reason I bring this up...there is no reason, this has nothing to do with this chapter I just thought I'd let you know.
Sixthly, During one of my late night 'writers block removing' sessions, while I was taking time to listen to "Rescue Me" and switching between, playing Viva Pinata (Great game) and watching The Hills Have Eyes Remake (Decent movie) I came up with a great idea...What If this was a real animated Series? (How I got that Idea is beyond me), which brought me to my next Idea, who would do the Theme Song and what would it be, well here are some of the many names that made the list. "In The City" by Joe Walsh, "Welcome To The Jungle" by Guns N' Roses and "Never Gonna Stop" by Rob Zombie. If you have a suggestion for a theme song please feel free to include it in your review (This is for fun not for any prize or anything).
Seventhly (Damn theres a lot of them this chapter arn't there), I made a huge mistake last chapter, at the time I wrote Lavatory as one of the floors thinking Lavatory meant "Lounge" (Don't ask me why) and kept that idea untill halfway through this chapter when I looked it up on the internet, So if theres any mentions of a "Lavatory" it means "Lounge" just to tell you. Also Last chapter I said there was a seperate kitchen floor...well ignore that the kitchen is part of the lounge now (It just worked better for the story if I molded the two into a 'super-lounge'.)
Finally.A Disclaimer: I do not own The Teen Titans or any other D.C. owned characters or places that might or might not be mentioned in this chapter or story all rights belong to D.C. Comics and not myself. What I do own are, The Heroes, Slack, Red, Blizkid, Sev, Tag and Lightlad as well as Hallow City, Biogen Corporation and all other non-D.C. Comic owned characters appearing in this chapter.
Now then...let's start the show.
Chapter 6: Day One
Part 1: Biogen
Slack opened her eyes slowly; she felt a series of soft objects brush gently against her cheek, she immediately rubbed them away with her right hand which revealed the objects to be strands of her hair that had rubbed against her cheek during her slumber. She frowned, she'd been woken up by mere strands of hair which upset her as she was having a nice dream, one which she hadn't wished to be awakened from. Slowly she got off of the bed, having spent the night without covers she didn't need to toss them off or make the bed for the matter.
She stood up beside her bed, slowly stretched her arms upwards and yawned quietly, making sure to cover her mouth afterwards, although she wasn't in the presence of any others, she'd been taught that it was polite to have manners and that lesson had dragged on with her throughout her life.
She glanced at her cat shaped alarm clock which read '7:30' on the cat's two cartoony eyes. She'd gotten up a half hour earlier than she normally did, this was a good sign as it meant she had more time to prepare for the coming day ahead of her.
She walked towards the left hand corner of her room where a small bathroom stood; It was a small room, roughly a quarter of the size of her own room, the walls coated with white tiles and the floor was made of a hard material, most likely marble.
In one corner of her bathroom stood a small glass shower, in the corner opposite the shower lay a small bathtub made of similar material to that of the floor, the last two objects in the room were relatively normal, a small sink made of the same material as the bath tub, the final object was a flat metal box shaped object attached to the wall that separated the bath and the shower, the object had a small circular handle atop it and "Laundry Shoot" written above it.
She undressed herself and grabbed two towels off the small towel rack that stood above the sink, she grabbed her clothes in one hand and scooped them up into her right arm, she gently grabbed the handle bar to the laundry shoot with her free hand, pulled it open and tossed her laundry down, it fell silently down the shoot, making as little noise as a 'swish' as it fell; she'd have to designate a member of her team to collect the laundry later.
Slowly she walked into the shower, tossing both towels over the top so that they balanced halfway between the inside and outside of the shower. She positioned the shower head to directly above her body using her right hand, using her left she turned one of two nozzles attached to the bottom of the showerhead, suddenly her body was being assaulted by thousands of drops of warm water, she relaxed her body in the continuous stream of warm water and reached for the shampoo.
Ten minutes later Slack walked out of her bathroom with two towels attached to her body, one towel was wrapped gently around her chest and the other wrapped around her long hair. she stopped for a moment, began drying herself off before she decided what to do next.
She walked slowly into her small walk-in closet and quickly tossed on her undergarments; she stood for a moment and prepared to collect her clothes for the day. On the farthest wall of the closet stood a tall wall mounted coat rack in which three of her costumes hung, she grabbed a fresh costume off the coat rack, quickly unzipped the back and slipped it over her skin. She'd worn the costume so many times that without feeling it over her skin she felt almost naked.
Next she moved towards the left wall of her closet where a small cage like object stood against the wall, inside the cage her utility belt hung from a small shelf like pair of stands, to the right of the belt were the accompanying gadgets. To the right of the 'cage' was a second 'cage' this one was smaller than the one which held her belt and had two rows of shelves, each one was stacked with her replacement gadgets.
Slack tossed the belt around her waist with her right hand, it dangled in the air for a split second before she caught it with her left hand, she snapped the belt into place before reaching both arms towards the wall, she then proceeded to grab the necessary supplies off the wall and began loading them into her belt, each one fit into a specific metal pouch on her belt, just as they were designed to.
Soon after she'd finished dressing she walked out of her room, making sure to toss both towels down the laundry shoot first. She pressed a small button on the door's keypad labeled "Close", the door slid closed behind her silently, making a "Whish" sound as it did, she smiled at it's efficient soundlessness of the door, had it been loud she surely would have woken up the others.
She stopped for a moment to think, she had at least a half of an hour before any of the others began to wake up and at least a full hour before they were ready to start their day, that was assuming of course they woke up at Eight thirty like she expected them too, if they didn't she'd have to enforce it on them, not harshly but with enough force that they understood that Eight Thirty was the wake up time.
Still thinking about what she could do with her time, she came to a conclusion, she was still unfamiliar with the tower, so she'd spend some time navigating the different levels, getting familiar with the place, it had helped her in the past and it would help her now.
As she walked towards the elevator she thought about what floor she'd visit first, there was a lounge, or as she liked to think of it, a 'hang-out', but she didn't really want to go there alone, it would be not only uncomfortable but awkward for her, there was a pool somewhere, but that too would be awkward without at least another person there, there was also a gym somewhere below the floor, that seemed like a good idea as she could get familiar with the equipment she'd be training with. She stepped inside the elevator and clicked the white button labelled "Gym" slowly the elevator started up and began its down wards travel.
When the door opened she saw, much to her surprise, Red, dressed in a pair of loose blue jeans, a black muscle shirt and a pair of tip less gloves attached to his palms. He stood in front of a large red punching bag that hung from the roof of the room; it was supported by a series of thick metal chains that looked to be made of a thick material.
Red beat the bag with a series of hard punches, one after another each punch landed with a mix of grace and furry, knocking the punching bag backwards fiercely.
Slack watched him for a while, admiring the way his body moved with each punch, she quickly tried to shake that thought out of her mind, there was no way she just thought about him like that, he was her team mate and friend not a crush…then again he wasn't that bad.
Finally after she shook the idea from her head she began to walk towards him slowly, unsure if disturbing him was such a good idea, he looked completely devoted to assaulting the punching bag, like it was some sort of obstacle in his way and he was incomplete without removing it.
"Isn't it a little early to be training?" She asked from behind, her voice carried a small sense of admiration with it.
Red delivered one final strong punch to the center of the bag, knocking it backwards strongly, it waved through the air fiercely before finally flying backwards towards him, he placed both his hands on the bag to stop it's movement, when he was sure it would no longer move he released his grasp on the bag and strolled across the floor towards a small wooden table where a towel and a bottle of water stood; he grabbed the towel with his right hand and wiped his face clean of any sweat.
As he finished wiping the sweat off his face, he removed the towel and stared at her with a smile on his face, this was one of the few times she had ever seen him truly smile, most times it was a smirk or a grin, but this was a honest to goodness, joy filled smile.
"It's never too early" he said, Slack smiled, there was something about Red, she couldn't put her finger on it but he just had 'it', sure he could be forceful at times, rude, violent and callous were also words that could describe his personality, but despite all this Slack still found a certain level of charm underneath the layer of anger he wore.
"So what brings you down here?" he asked as he swung the towel around the back of his neck, Slack smiled.
"I got up early and thought maybe I'd look around" Slack said, Red nodded his head lightly, as if he were making a mental note of what she'd just said, though Slack saw no reason he would.
Suddenly the noise of the elevator doors opening was heard, both teens turned their head towards the elevator to see what the disturbance was, they saw Lightlad's head poking through the doors, he saw the two looked somewhat surprised.
"I'm not interrupting something am I?" He asked in a surprised tone, it was odd to him that he should find the two of them together like this, whatever 'this' was,
Slack blushed and Red looked at him with a mix of worry and anger, the same face he'd given him the day they met at the airport.
"No" Both of them said in unison, Lightlad smirked; he now knew exactly what was going on.
"Right, well the others are up and in the lounge in case you were wondering, I think Sev's making breakfast" Sev said as he pulled his head back into the elevator, the doors closed slowly, leaving the two teens alone in the room.
"You ever notice when we have a moment he ruins it?" Red asked, Slack blushed at his nonchalant use of the word 'moment', she tried hiding her blush with a slight nod of her head.
"Well, I'm gonna take a shower, see if you can save me some of whatever Sev's making" He said as he grabbed both his towel and water bottle off the table and started walking towards a corner of the room where a tall metal door stood, as Red reached the door it opened with the same 'whish' like noise that the other doors did, inside the door Slack could see two set of stairs, one set led upwards and the other downwards, Red walked up the upwards stairs and the door closed behind him.
As soon as she was sure Red had exited the ear length area she let out a loud groan, not a pain filled groan, but a angst filled one, the angst coming from the fact that she'd practically turned to jelly in front of him, it wasn't like he was good looking….well aside from the red skin and tail he was sort of good looking….wait she didn't just think that...did she?
She took a deep breath in, swallowed and headed towards the elevator, thinking along the way about what it was about Red that made her feel so….so…weird.
Stepping inside the elevator she pressed the button labelled "Lounge", the doors closed slowly, she took another breath in, she had to get control of herself, no one wanted a school girl to lead their team, they wanted a tough-as-nails, split second decision making super hero, she released the air in her lungs, that's what she had to be, a strong willed superhero.
The doors to the elevator opened and allowed Slack her first glance at the lounge, it was a larger room, which was brightly light, due, in part, to the large back wall which was one big window, the room was heavily carpeted with only a corner section of the room having a wooden floor, in that section of the room stood a small kitchen, the kitchen was equipped with the casual stove supplies, stove, oven, microwave, fridge, sink and cupboards, though each one was coated in the same metal as the walls of the tower, giving each piece a 'futuristic' look. In the middle of the kitchen stood Sev, with two large frying pans infront of him, he was wearing a large white chef's hat in place of his usual knit beanie and a large white apron that read "Iron Chef" on it, he smiled as he saw Slack walk into the room.
Directly in front of where Slack stood was a large TV, almost half the size of a regular movie theatre screen, attached to the to the left of the TV was a hardwood cabinet that housed several dozen small box sized machines, all of which were hooked up to the TV in some way. Slack recognised some of the machines, they were all different entertainment devices, DVD players, video game stations, video recording devices, every piece of TV technology was there and accounted for.
To the right of the small kitchen and to the left of the TV stood a large dining table, the table was at least twelve feet across and two to three feet wide and had a dozen tall chairs surrounding it. The table was made of black metal and had a large and long glass window stationed in the middle of it, the chairs were made of the same material as the table, though they lacked the glass window that the table had.
Blizkid and Lightlad sat on the circular couch that surrounded the TV, each teen had a controller in their hands and a gaze focused solely on there video game characters, to Lightlad's right was Tag, she too watched the screen, be it absent mind-idly, Tag turned her head from the onscreen carnage and caught a glimpse of Slack, she smiled her usual optimistic smile.
"Hello Slack" she called out and waved gently towards her, Slack smiled at this friendly gesture.
From where they were sitting, both Lightlad and Blizkid turned their heads towards her, Lightlad, recalling what he'd seen in the gym, smirked and turned back towards the TV, Blizkid dropped his controller on the floor, much to the dismay of Lightlad, who'd wished to beat Blizkid at least once during their small video game brawl.
"Hi Slack" He greeted as he approached her, a cheery, childish smile on his face, Slack couldn't help but smile at his boyish innocence, she patted him on the head softly, messing up his hair in the process, though he didn't seem to mind, instead taking it as a compliment.
"Ladies and germs, breakfast is served" Sev's voices called out from the kitchen, suddenly all eyes were on him. He held two metal frying pans in his hands; each pan had a pair of eggs inside them, he placed both frying pans on the no longer light stove and opened one of the drawers above his right knee, pulling out a small metal spatula, he inserted the spatula under the first egg and gently pulled it upwards, taking the egg with it, Lightlad approached him, a metal plate in his hands and cutlery in his left hand, Sev smiled and slid the egg onto the plate, next came Tag, she put her plate in front of her and smiled at him, Sev placed the spatula under a completely white egg and gently flipped it onto her plate.
"One tofu egg for our resident Vegetarian" he said with a smile, she too smiled and thanked him gracefully for the eggs and took a spot at the table beside Lightlad
Next up was Blizkid, he placed his plate on the hard metal counter, Sev lifted one of the eggs of the pan and slid it onto his plate gently, Blizkid thanked him, grabbed his plate with one hand and rushed over to where Tag and Lightlad were sitting.
"Last eggs for you Slack" he said flipping the last egg onto a plate to his side, Slack smiled politely and took the plate.
"Aren't you eating?" she asked, Sev smirked, though this wasn't a rude smirk, more of a casual smile sort of smirk.
"You're kidding right, eggs? They've got too many calories for me…nope I'm gonna stick to my good ol' healthy bacon if you don't mind" he said as he walked towards the fridge, Slack smiled again and took a seat across from Lightlad's.
Sev opened a package of bacon and placed six strips inside the pan, he began to fry his bacon while humming the tune of "Welcome to the jungle" to himself, he spun the pan slightly, causing a series of crackling noises to be heard.
Suddenly a quiet 'whish' noise interrupted the silence in the room as all eyes were suddenly drawn to the elevator where Red stood in the open doorway. He was dressed in a fresh pair of grey jeans with several sheathes wrapped around the leg's, a light black muscle shirt with his "R" insignia on it and the same jacket he'd worn at the airport, the three elements that made up his 'costume'.
"Breakfast?" he asked as he walked towards the kitchen, his eyes on the pan of bacon in front of him, Sev smirked.
"Yeah, mine" he said flipping the bacon out of the pan with the spatula, each piece flew through the air fiercely, leaving drops of grease trailing behind them, before they landed perfectly on Sev's plate.
Red reached onto his forehead where several drops of grease had landed, he grinned at Sev who shrugged his shoulders before taking a seat next to Slack, Red frowned and wiped away the grease on his forehead with a paper towel he'd grabbed off the counter.
"Guess I'm makin' my own breakfast" he said coldly, his comment directed at Sev who sat eating his bacon tauntingly.
"Guess so" Sev said before rubbing his stomach "M-m-m-m, deee-licious".
"I'll make you something" Blizkid said getting up from his spot and rushing over to where Red stood, Red smiled at his eagerness.
"It's O.K. kid, I've learned that you make the bed you lay in" he said reaching for the fridge door, he grabbed several packages of bacon, tore them open with his bare hands and turned on the stove.
Several minutes passed before Red had finished preparing his meal, which consisted of, eight strips of bacon, two pieces of toast and four eggs. He sat down at the head of the table and stabbed his fork into the first piece of bacon.
"How can you eat that?" Tag said with a disgusted face, Red rolled his eyes, hoping she wasn't going to start the whole 'Animals are our friends not food' routine again, he finished chewing his piece of bacon before clearing his throat and speaking.
"On the farm its survival of the fittest…and I guess pigs just don't have what it takes" Red said stabbing a second piece of bacon with his fork.
"I meant how can you eat that much…won't you have a heart attack or something?" she asked, Lightlad smirked, he was imagining what it would be like if he did have a heart attack.
"I have a high metabolism, I burn triple the fat a normal person would burn in a day every four hours" Red said stabbing two pieces of bacon with his fork before putting them in his mouth, he chewed them thoroughly, swallowed and reached for a piece of toast.
"If I didn't eat this much I'd slowly start to die" he said taking a bite of the toast, Tag looked worriedly at Red, she didn't realise that he might die if he didn't eat, she didn't think it was that serious.
"So, like if you missed dinner…you'd wake up dead?" Sev asked from his spot at the table.
"Let's not worry about it" Red said finishing the last piece of toast, the others sat in silence for a minute before Lightlad, Tag and Blizkid started clearing their plates, Sev and Slack followed shortly after and finally Red.
The rest of the morning progressed slowly, Red and Blizkid spent their time playing video games, Sev, having gotten permission from Slack, began constructing a "Crime Computer" that would help them track down criminals; Tag was finishing decorating her room with the help of an overly eager Lightlad and Slack was busy finishing up her inspection of the Tower, getting used to the different rooms they'd be using from time to time.
At Twelve thirty Sev came rushing from the elevator, he leapt over the couch, using his metallic arm to sturdy his body and landed in-between Blizkid and Red, he grabbed the remote off the table and aimed it at the TV, he flipped through the channels, much to the dismay of Red and Blizkid who were in the middle of a video game.
"I don't know if you noticed but we were kind of playing a game here" Red said coldly, Blizkid sighed and using his game controller turned off the console, guess he'd have to wait another day to see who was better at 'Thirst 4 Blood'.
"Yeah, yeah I'm real sorry but this just so happens to be important" Sev said sarcastically as he flipped through dozens of channels before stopping on a news channel, much to the dismay of both Blizkid and Red who hated being interupted esspecially for a news broadcast.
Onscreen a sharply dressed female reporter with bright blonde hair stood in a large white office, to her right was a man, a few inches shorter then herself, with short clean cut greyish silver hair, a short goatee on his face and deep blue eyes, the man was dressed dark blue suit with a white undershirt and a striped red tie. As he talked with the reporter he held his arms behind his back, it was a somewhat weird gesture that the others couldn't understand the meaning of.
"Now that the Titans have arrived in Hallow City what are you're company's plans to cooperate with them?" the reporter asked, the man smiled and pulled one of his arms from behind him, raising it to his mouth. Clutched in-between his index and middle finger was a large brown cigar, he put the cigar to his lips, puffed once and slowly moved his arm back behind his body.
"As I've said in press conferences, I hope to work closely with our cities heroes allowing them as much help as they need, after all, We here at Biogen are all about helping those in need" The man said with a fake care filled voice.
By this time the entire team had gathered around the TV, each one stopping what it was they were doing previously in order to get a better view of the screen,
"What is your response to the allegation that your company is responsible for the creation of dangerous illegal substances as well as the multiple reports of illegal genetics research?" The reporter asked, the man smiled, a sort of 'I know something you don't' smile.
"Mrs. Soho. As president of Biogen it's my duty to ensure the safety of not only my workers but my consumers, we would never create a life threatening substances nor do we create potentially dangerous chemicals or compounds, as for the reports of our 'illegal' genetics research it's all just rumours started by a bunch of kids with to much time on there hands. Now I'm sorry for the inconvenience but I have a meeting to get too" the man said walking away from the camera, The camera turned to face the reporter who then appoligized to the reviewer for the unexpected absence.
"What's Biogen?" Blizkid asked, Red shrugged his shoulder as a form of saying "I don't know" and Sev clicked off the TV with the remote.
"From the looks of things I'd say it's some kind of research lab…like Xynocks Industry" Sev said. The others knew of Xynocks Industry, it was a research building which made and mass produced cures to hundreds of deseases, there claim to fame was both in creating a cure to a deadly flu that effected most of Jump City during the early 90's and the creation of the substance known as Xenothium used to power the Red X suit that both Robin and the current Red X wore.
"Since when do we need help?" Red asked with his usual cold toned voice, the others shrugged their shoulders.
"We may not need the help but that doesn't mean we should waste it, we should see what it's all about and maybe give them a chance, besides the more help the merrier right?" Slack asked.
"So what...we just give em' a call? Cause I don't think that's very professional of us" Lightlad said, sarcasm playing off his tone, the others frowned at him, even Tag which upset him slightly.
"Actually, that is the plan" Slack said, Lightlad's frown only grew as the others smiled, at the moment he felt extremely small compared to the others, though he said nothing about it, instead keeping his mouth shut should he make another sarcastic comment that could be easily back fired on him.
Slack reached into her utility belt and grabbed her yellow communicator with her right hand, it snapped off it's holder with a silent 'click'. She then brought it upwards and handed it to Sev who accepted it with both hands.
"Can you program this to reach Biogen?" she asked, Sev smiled.
"Can I program it to reach Biogen? Does Robin look like he uses a dangerous amount of hair gel on a daily basis?" he joked, the others smiled lightly, true it wasn't one of his funnier jokes but at least he was trying.
"I'll be back in a flash" He said rushing to the elevator, the others waited silently on the couch, not saying much more than a word or two at a time, their eyes jumping from person to person as they waited for Sev's return.
"So…how bout them Yankees?" Lightlad asked sarcastically in an attempt to break the un-easy silence in the room, again his comment was met with frowns and rolled eyes, Lightlad frowned and sank into his seat.
Five minutes later Sev came rushing through the stairwell door, practically slamming into it on his way through, a smile was placed on his face as he held the communicator in his hand, he stopped in front of Slack, handed her the device and smiled.
"All taken care of boss" he said taking a breath, running up multiple flights of stairs had taken its toll on him as he was now out of breath, he relaxed on the couch and continued his rapid breathing.
"So…what's happening?" Lightlad asked from his spot on the couch, Sev took another breath in, sat up and looked at Lightlad before speaking.
"I talked to one of their rep's, he said he could get us in by Two for a chat with the boss, he said that the boss, Mr. Hoffman, would have a nice little chat with us" Sev said with a smile.
"Two?" Slack asked looking at the clock attached to the top of the oven, the clock read '1:24' with large red numbers.
"Yep Two O' Clock, so without sounding too intruding I'd say we should get going, I hear traffics a bitch out there" Sev said with a wide smirk, the others looked at Slack who nodded her head in agreement to Sev's idea of leaving the tower.
Slack nodded and headed towards the elevator, the others got off the couch, Red turning the TV off as he did, got to their feet and followed after Slack.
The team piled into the elevator quietly, Red stood in the back, Sev in front of him, Tag to his left, Blizkid beside her and Slack at the front, gently Slack pressed the single square button on the keypad, this button, unlike the others, glew a bright red fluorescent glow.
The elevator slowly reached past the bottom floors of the tower, going deep through the level of earth they called 'land' and slowly reaching deep underneath the earth. The elevator continued to travel farther underground, Slack guessed they were at least sixty feet underground by this point. Finally the elevator came to a halt and the doors opened to reveal a dark, damp and noticeably empty garage.
A small control panel hung from the ceiling, it being one of the few things that were light up by the light of the elevator, the other two being a small red workbench and a foursome of tires which sat against a caged wall. Red grabbed the panel and pressed down on the big red button on the center of it, slowly one by one the lights light up, each one was accompanied by a mechanical "Clang".
"And God said "Let there be light" and there was light" Red said as the last light finished lighting up, giving full view to the large garage, it was a large empty room at least forty feet wide and tall, the ground was made of a hard concrete like material and the walls were open and gave exposure to the hard rock that surrounded the garage, with only a large grid like cage acting as a means of support encase of a earthquake, the roof was at least forty feet above their heads and had large florescent lights hanging down to at least twenty feet, these lights giving the room the it's only light.
At the farthest end of the room was a large ramp which looked to lead to the outside of the tower, judging by this and the fact that there were several more electrical control panels that hung from the ceiling, the others guessed there was a open switch somewhere. In the farthest corner of the room was a large object in the shape of a car and was covered by a large grey tarp. On what Red assumed to be the windshield of the car was a small yellow envelope.
Red walked towards the cloaked object, followed by the rest of his team, he picked up the envelop which read "To Red" on the cover, Red smirked as he reached his hand down to his knee and pulled out a small, handheld knife from one of his many sheates. Flicking the knife open he slit the top of the envelope open and poured it's contents into his hand, the first was a set of key's which came out quickly and roughly, the second was a paper which fell out gently into his hand, Red pocketed the key's and raised the paper to eye level and read it out loud.
"Dear Red, I knew you'd be the first person to be in the garage, judging by the amount of time you spent in mine back at the tower. I hope you like the gift I left you, I also hope you don't mind the lack of a paint job but I had no time to paint pink bunnies and little flowers on the car before you left. Sincerely, Your friend Cyborg".
Red smiled, gently folded the letter into a small square and stuck it in a pocket on his pants. He grabbed the tarp with one hand and with one strong tug, pulled the entire tarp off of the object, revealing a T-Car, identical to the one back at the tower, the same style which Red had envied since he first laid eyes on it, though he had to disagree with Cyborg's decision to keep it unpainted.
Red put on a smile as he ran his hand over the hood of the car, turning his head back at the team he saw that all of them, with the usual exception of Lightlad, stood with smiles on their faces.
"We gonna get going or what?" Lightlad asked. He, apparently unlike the rest of his team, had no intentions of watching Red take joy in a something as simple as a box with some circle attached to the bottom of it. Red picked up on the negative vibe Lightlad was giving off and smirked.
"Only if I can drive" he said leaping over the hood of the car and quickly getting into the drivers seat, Sev smiled.
"Shotgun" he called out as he rushed towards the passenger's seat of the car, he quickly got in and immediately took great admiration to the technology in the car, to him it was no longer a heap of scrap metal with wheels, the car was now a mobile computer, there were dozens of input slots, each one compatible with a different electronic device, Mp3, DVD, Laptop, you name it, it had it. There was also what looked like a six disk C.D. player with large speakers attached to each door, no doubt the car could get louder than a typical Mettalica concert.
The rest of the team began taking their seats in the car, Slack sat on the right, Blizkid in one of the two middle spots, Tag in the second and Lightlad beside her, Red smiled and turned his head towards the group.
"Now…If I were you I'd buckle up" he said as he stabbed the key into the ignition and turned it roughly, the others began to feel uneasy about Red driving, but before any of them could voice their complaints the car's engine started and just as quickly as the engine had started the car shot off, heading down the long hall that led to the end of the garage.
Sev, who during Red's 'speech' had been exploring the glove compartment found not only the garage door opener, but also a spare set of key's, these would come in handy should Red ever loose his, clicking the button quickly, the door opened and the T-car shot out, narrowly avoiding the garage door slicing off the roof.
The car spun down the street at speeds only reachable by Kid Flash, though much to the others surprise Red was double the driver they had expected him to be, triple in Lightlad's case.
As he came out of the seclusion of the tower's lonely and empty road and into the rush hour traffic of the highly populated city, the others were surprised to learn he handled the car with excellent skill, he swerved his way through traffic with great ease and joy, it was almost surprising to see Red this 'happy', if you could call it that, it was like driving somehow calmed him down, as he no longer had his typical cold glare on his face, a large smile in it's place.
The T-car sped down the next two blocks, by this time it was almost apparent that Red had no idea where he was going, Slack would solve this problem by handing Sev her communicator, he accepted it and placed it on the small stand attached to the left hand dashboard. As Red continued his trek through the city Sev input the coordinates of the building into the GPS system on the car, Red noticed this and started to slow his driving down.
"Sev…mind telling me where the hell I'm going?" he asked as he swerved the car to the right fiercely, the car cut through a back lane and
"Certainly, take a right two blocks from here" Sev said, The T-car sped through the next two blocks, taking the right turn sharply, Red narrowly missing smashing the back of a bright red Ferrari while he did.
"Now what?" he asked, slowing down as he awaited further instructions. Sev looked at the GPS and quickly memorised the next three steps to getting to the building.
"Take a left a block from here then two rights down the next two blocks" he said, Red nodded and gunned the engine, he sped down the block quickly, taking the left with the precision of a NASCAR driver, there was no doubt Red could easily out do the others in any form of racing.
Red took the next right with a great level of skill, several cars honked at him as he passed them, one giving him the finger, Red fought the urge to get out and beat the driver senseless, he'd have to save that for a later day.
Finally the car came to a sudden and impact heavy stop, each body in the back of the car flew forwards roughly, had it not been for their seatbelts which were fastened around their waists tightly they would surely have smashed through the thick glass windshield of the car.
"Whoa" was all Slack could manage to say from her seat, the others slowly opened the car doors and practically fell out of them, Red, who, unlike the rest of his team, had gotten an adrenalin rush from the ride, quickly got out of his door, to his feet and rushed over to help Slack to hers.
"Easy, easy..alright you got it" he said raising her body by her arm gently, she got to her feet, brushed herself off and tilted her head slowly from left to right, trying to shake away the massive headache that Red's driving had brought on.
On the other side of the car Lightlad helped both Tag and Blizkid to their feet, receiving a polite "Thank you" from Tag and a quick "Thanks" from Blizkid, which was more than he expected from him. The group re-met on the opposite side of the car, the side where Slack, Red and Sev all stood, and stared in awe at the Biogen building.
The building was the same one that both Blizkid and Slack had seen the previous day, though what both teens saw was no where near as awe inspiring as what stood before them today. It was the tallest building any of them had ever seen in their lives, it was at least the size of two of Jump Cities tallest sky scrappers piled on top of the other, the design was much like that of a hair pin, it was flat on the bottom and gradually got taller and thinner as it progressed upwards, finally ending off with two tall horn like devices at the top. What had looked like metallic tubes to Blizkid the previous day, now revealed them selves to be large spider leg shaped exhaust shoots which attached from the back of the base of the tower and wrapped around to the front upper portion of the tower, aimed upwards and away from the tower, each one emitted a large cloud of black smoke, this surely wasn't healthy for the environment.
At the base of the building stood a small metal courtyard were several dozen trees and bushes sat along the base of a small brick 'road' that led to the entrance of the building.
The group walked through the courtyard, taking time to admire the many plants and bushes along the way, finally they came to the end of the courtyard, they now stood in front of two large blue glass doors, each one had "Biogen" printed neatly on the front. Red pushed the doors open, the swung forward and led to a small walkway that led to yet another set of doors, as the group walked through the hallway a voice recording played a message above their heads.
"Hello and welcome to Biogen Corporation, If you are seeking employment please consult one of our many reseptionists. If you are here for a tour of our building please visit the receptionists also. If you are visiting regarding the unwanted side effects of an experiment please consult the health and safety department, thank you and have a good day" the voice said in a robotic like monotone.
The group reached the second set of doors and opened them, this time their sight wasn't met with a hall but rather a large waiting room of sorts. It was a large mostly open room with three elevator shoots, to the right of the elevators was a round wooden desk where several receptionists, dressed in fancy and expensive clothing sat at, they had headsets attached to either their right or left ears and flat paneled computers in front of them. In the middle of the room stood large circular fountain with a tall statue, made entirely of gold in the middle of it, the statue depicted a man, who looked exactly like to the man they had seen on the TV interview, holding a globe in his hands like he would a dove. There was a caption underneath the statue that read "For the people".
"And I thought the Tower was classy" Sev said as he and the others progressed further into the building, they stopping at the large, round desk. Slack approached the desk and gently leaned on it, shifting her weight to her arms.
"Hello, how may I help you?" the receptionist asked politely with a smile, Slack returned the smile.
"Where here to see Mr. Hoffman" she said, the receptionist tapped a few keys on her keyboard before she turned back towards Slack.
"You must be his two O'clock, I'll send Mr. Lloyd right away" she said pressing several more buttons on her keyboard, "If you'd like you can take a seat on the couches over there" she said pointing towards a large couch that surrounded the statue, where the rest of her team sat, patiently awaiting their escort.
Several minutes past before a small glass elevator slowly descended down one of the elevator shoots, inside the elevator stood a short, somewhat scrawny and remote African American man, he looked to be within his late twenties or early thirties, his head was covered by a small flat puff of hair, almost forming an afro and was dressed in a bright brown suit, black dress pants and brown leather shoes.
The elevator touched down on the bottom of the elevator shaft and the two glass doors slowly slid open, the man rushed out in a fast strut and raced towards the receptionist.
"Mindy…where are Mr. Hoffman's Two O' Clock's?" he asked the secretary nervously, she smiled a soft smile and pointed her finger towards where the group sat.
"Over there Mr. Lloyd and might I say you're suit looks excellent on you" She said with a smile, he faked a smile and quickly rushed over to where Slack sat on the couch, she stood up as he approached and he slowly slowed down as he reached her.
"You must be Slack" he said extending his hand, she smiled politely, shook it and nodded her head.
"I'm Aaron Lloyd, I spoke with one of your members over the phone" he said, his voice carreing a semi-nervous tone with it, Slack took note of this, it seemed as if he were trying to rush the introductions along quickly.
"I hate to rush you off but Mr. Hoffman's asked to see you and….well, what he wants he gets" Aaron said with a soft chuckle and a small smile.
"If you'd head towards the elevator" He said ushering Slack and the others, who'd gathered around him during his and Slack's conversation, towards the elevator.
He piled into the elevator along with them and pressed a button labelled "Main Office", the elevator doors slid shut and the elevator began to travel upwards.
As the elevator traveled through various floors it allowed the team a good look at what was going on around the building, they passed a floor where a team of white coated scientist types stood in front of a caged monkey, one of the men had a needle in his hand and just as he was about to inject it into the monkey's stomach the elevator passed the floor.
The elevator passed through several more floors where different assortments of experiments were taking place, as the group, mostly Sev, watching with astonishment at the sights they saw, Aaron adjusted his tie, loosing it's grasp around his neck, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small handkerchief which he dabbed across his forehead, taking a small excess of sweat attached to it.
Finally the elevator came to a halt, stopping on the top floor of the building; the group came out of the elevator slowly, with Aaron leading them. In front of the group was a large extravagant hallway that led to two large oak doors, they walked down the hallway and stood in front of the oak doors, Aaron knocked on the doors and stood with his hands behind his back.
The doors opened slightly to reveal a tall muscular Caucasian man, he had a shaved Mohawk atop his head and a large bushy goatee above and around his mouth, both were coloured a shade of brown that looked almost unnatural on a man like him. He was dressed in a black and red leather jacket, black jeans and an un-tucked white undershirt. Red could distinctly make out a small shape in his shirt that stuck out, if he was right this 'guard' was carrying a handgun which was gently concealed underneath his leather coat.
"Where the hell have you been Lloyd? Hoffman was expecting your ass a half an hour ago, and who the hell are these spandex wearing ass wipes behind you!" he shouted angrily, Red smirked from his spot behind Aaron, this guy was a typical your typical low life thug type.
"I know, I know I'm sorry alright…and these are Mr. Hoffman's Two o clock, so if you'd just let us in-" Aaron said nervously trying to squeeze through the door only to be stopped by the man.
"I don't think so Lloyd, you ain't getting in here unless Hoffman says so and so far he's said jack-squat so why don't you and the freak patrol take a cake walk" the man said rudely, about to shut the door on Aarons face, he was interrupted by a voice from behind him.
"Mr Beest is there a problem?" the voice from behind him asked, the man, now identified as 'Mr. Beest', burrowed his eyebrows into a frown and sighed.
"No sir Mr. Hoffman, Mr. Lloyd was just bringing in you're Two O' Clock" he said opening the door with great reluctance, Aaron smiled to himself as he entered with the group trailing along behind him.
The inside of the 'Penthouse' was nothing short of breath taking, it was a large room, almost double the size of the lounge back at the tower, there was a mini bar to the right of the room where several dozen bottles of assorted liquor sat, gently relaxed on a the small metal counters they were attached to. In the middle of the room sat two long couches, each one pointed away from the other so that one faced the wall and the other faced the door, the entire back wall of the penthouse was a large black tinted window, much like the one back at the tower, that overlooked the entire city. In front of the window sat a large wooden desk that faced opposite the view of the city, on the desk sat a large glass ashtray, a box of cigars and a small intercom. Behind the desk was a large leather chair where a man's hand could be seen holding a thick brown cigar.
The chair spun around to bring to view the figure of a man, the same one they had seen twice before, once on the TV and the second time as a statue in the lobby of the building, though in person he looked somewhat different from his appearance both other times, his face was somewhat wrinkled along the forehead and cheeks, no doubt this was due in part to age and most likely his assumed constant smoking, he smiled as he laid eyes on the six teens who stood at his doorway.
"Ah, you must be the Titans; I'm Dennis Hoffman, president of Biogen Corporation and this is my associate Mr. Bruno Beest. Please let met me be the first to say it's an honour to meet you all, can I offer any of you a drink, maybe a glass of wine, scotch-" he paused to take a good look at the team, realising that they were all teenaged kids he rethought his proposition "-grape juice?".
"I'll have a glass of Coke if you don't mind" Slack said as she approached one of the several chairs seated in front of Hoffman's desk, Hoffman smiled and turned his attention towards a quiet Beest who stood in the corner of the room silently.
"Mr. Beest, if you wouldn't mind" he said, Beest frowned, huffed objectively and slowly strolled towards the mini bar; next Hoffman turned his attention towards where Mr. Lloyd stood silently.
"Mr. Lloyd I'm sure you have other business to attend to…perhaps helping Doctor Freeman with his 'interplanetary travels' project?" he asked, Lloyd nodded his head vigorously and silently exited the room.
"Now then, let's discuss our plans for Hallow City" he said as the group finished taking their seats around Hoffman's desk, Slack smiled, though this wasn't her usual casual smile, it was a hard and serious smile, a smile the others would come to call her 'business' smile.
"As you are probably aware Hallow City is a very large city, full of thousands of people and hundreds of potential criminals, now I don't want to speak for you or you're team, but I know I would need a hand defending Hallow City if I were in your shoes. What I'm offering is a sort of 'You scratch my back I scratch yours' deal. I offer you my company's resources and services and in return you have clean up duty to any of my company's experiments that get out of hand while diverting the media's attention from this fine facility, not all media attention is good you know" he said with a malicious smile on his face, Slack looked confused as to what he was offering.
"You're asking us to clean up after your messes?" Slack asked in disbelief, Hoffman smiled.
"More or less" He said with his devious smile, Slack was liking were this conversation was going less and less, the president of a multi-billion dollar genetics company was asking her to regard seeing any of it's illegal activities, she knew right away what she had to do and say.
"And you're messes are illegal?" Sev asked. Hoffman's smile grew slightly, something the others regarded as not being a good sign.
"I run a very large company whose yearly intake is more than most men would ever dream of making in a lifetime, part of that salary comes from some of my more 'boundary pushing' research that some on The Hallow City Health Board see as….'un-ethical' and 'inhumane', so I have to keep the projects and the minds responsible for them hidden from the public, What I'm asking is that you keep my secret safe….you can do that, cant you?" Hoffman asked with a mix of genuine concern and an equal amount of cynicism.
"As a member of the Teen Titans and keeper of the peace, I have no choice but to order you to desist your illegal activities and appeal to a court of law" she said in text book like fashion, Hoffman smirked.
"While that was a very threatening speech Mrs. Slack, I'd advise you that it'll take more than a few simple threats to stop me" Hoffman said with his malicious smile, Slack looked un-amused.
"We will shut you down Hoffman" she said in an angered tone, Hoffman's smirk only doubled.
"I find it hard to believe that you can stop me, besides you have no evidence of any illegal activities taking place other than your word and I don't think that will hold up in any court, I can see it now The Teen Titans, responsible for thousands of dollars in damages every year vs. Biogen, a Multi Billion dollar genetics company that provides cures to many of today's problems…who do you think would win?-" Hoffman asked. Slack looked angrily at Hoffman, though part of her knew he was right, she couldn't take him to court and without evidence even she couldn't arrest him, Hoffman saw the defeat in her eyes and smiled.
"This isn't over, we will stop you, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but we will stop you" Slack said as she stood up in her chair, though her intent wasn't to leave but instead to add a level or seriousness to her speech.
From his seat Hoffman moved his left hand under his desk and pressed a small button on the underside of the desk, this action went unnoticed by the titans.
"I'd advise you to sit down Mrs. Slack" he said bringing his hand back up to the desk and laying it flat on it, Slack glared angrily at him, which he returned with a knowing smile.
Suddenly the door to the room was slammed open and three bodies filled the room, the first was a tall, well built, African American man dressed entirely in red metallic armour, he had a pair of thick black sunglasses on his eyes and his hair tied back in thin corn rolls, behind him stood two men dressed in the same metallic armour as the first man but with a blue tint to it, the men's facial features were hidden behind a large metallic helmet that looked like a mix between a Motorcycle helmet and a pair of blue tinted night vision goggles, each man held a long club in their hands, each 'club' ending with a large bulbous attachment which sparked electricity from time to time.
"Is there a problem Mr. H?" The helmet less man asked, Hoffman smiled, looked at Slack then the rest of the team and then re-directed his attention to the man.
"No problem Dexter my guests were just leaving...isn't that right?" Hoffman said with his devious smile, Slack looked at him, and then at the three armed guards who were obviously there to make sure that they left. As much as she wanted too she couldn't order her team to attack the guards then Hoffman, it was both impractical and dangerous, who knew how many more guards were in the tower still, she frowned to herself and made her decision.
She got up in her chair, this action was followed closely by the rest of her team, who followed after her to the door, walking past the three armed guards who snickered to themselves as they left the room, she stopped halfway down the hall and gave Hoffman a dark and challenging glare before walking the rest of the length.
"Goodbye now" Hoffman said with a smirk as the group exited the office, he waited a moment before turning his chair to Beest, who stood with his arms crossed at the side of his desk.
"Are you good now Mr. Hoffman sir?" Dexter, the singled out leader of the group, asked.
"Every thing is fine now Mr. Hoxie you and you're men can go back to what ever it was you were doing before this" Hoffman said, Dexter nodded his head and slowly left the room followed by the two other guards.
Hoffman sat contently in his desk and brought his left and right leg up towards the desk, relaxing them on it, the right leg atop the left before reaching into a small box and pulling out a large brown cigar, he put the cigar to his lips, lit a match on his table and brought it to the cigar, igniting it and bringing it to 'life'.
"Mr. Beest I'd like for you to call my nephew and tell him I have a business proposition that requires the full attention of himself and his merry little band of miscreants, and when you do, do that, please make sure to mention that this 'project' involves elliminating the Titans" Hoffman said with a devilish smile.
Sorry To leave it off with such a crappy Cliffhanger but as I've said times before this chapter was just too long to include everything I wanted. Now let's focus on something we can all take joy in reading, thats right another addition of The Captains Crazy Trivia (and useless facts).
Biogen, the evil company is a mix of the companies Biosyn and Ingen from the Jurrasic Park books by Michael Crichton, the company itself is based on (believe it or not) Microsoft and how all the world see's it as a "Evil Corporation".
Bruno Beest's last name is supposed to be pronounced 'Beast' not 'Best', also, reggarding the character of Bruno Beest, his character was modeled after U.F.C. champion Chuck Liddell (If you don't know who he is it's ok, it's not that important), who also happens to be my favorite U.F.C. wrastler'.
Dennis Hoffman is named and modeled after actor Dennis Hopper as well as his character Kaufman in Land Of The Dead. I tried (and hopefully succeeded) to make him a funny but still heartless and merciless tyrant, Hoffman will be the 'Slade' of this story acting as the main antagonist of the story as well as his company Biogen acting as the main 'villian' of the story.
Also reggarding character inspiration, Aaron Lloyd was based on actor Phil Lamar (The voice of Hermez in Futurama) and Dexter Hoxie was moddled after rapper/actor Xzibit, again this is of no real value and purely there for kicks.
In this chapter Hoffman mentions "Doctor Freeman", this is a reference to the video game Half Life (wow I felt like a nerd writing that).
Finally, The last bit O' trivia, this chapter is by far the longest I've written and went through the most changes in storyline. Originally it had the characters being interviewed by the reporter Sarah Soho and eventually being offered a chance to help Biogen, that, as well as three other storylines, got cut when it went nowhere.
Next Chapter: Our heroes face their first day in Hallow City and learn that Hallow City may need more help then they can give as they face off against two impending dangers, the first is Biogen, a genetics company that happens to be Hallow City's number one source of income but Biogen has a less than noble agenda when if comes to their experiments, Biogen also happen to be led by a man who has various ties to Hallow City's seedy underworld. Their second problem lies in one such tie, a gang of vicious street teens called The Reapers who are led by a group of super powered teens with their minds set on not just beating the Titans but destroying them
