Afterburn: Part I

Arc III: Diversions

Chapter XI: The Desert: Part 1

By: mrbeans

Rated: T

El Queso de Maliscioso:

1- I see that I got the finish-the-chapter jitters but you seem to be a, no offense, a detail fiend.

2- Hey, there's a fine line between inspired by and copying, I have not yet corrossed it.

3- So did I, making fun of red necks is a bit of a hobby of mine.

4- As I said, that was an unintentional subconcious thing.

5- Thank you, I was quite proud of that cliffy

Raven twisted and turned during her dreams they were filled with thoughts of history. The history of the stone they had found to be exact. Its name was the Aquious, it had started and ended many of the wars in Azarath's times.

Raven's dream of her home faded into desert, she stood in the middle of a swirling sand tornado. She was unsure of what to make of such an odd dream, save over exposure to Beast Boy, until disembodied voice began to speak.

"To the common eye time moves as if directed through a series of pipes" it began "you and I know better. Time is a sand storm, it's path ever changing, it's course unpredictable. You have found that which will lead you to me. There are things at work that I have tried to rectify, I have failed. Take the stone and travel into the Desert, my problem bares a face you know. I can say no more, my thoughts are sealed, yours are not."

Raven sat bolt upright in bed everything in the hotel room was as it should be. "At least as it was" said Raven quietly to herself as she got out of bed and looked around at the nauseating room they had been forced to stay in.

Raven had made it a point not to step on the ground while they were in hilbilly-ville, merely thinking about what she had stepped in when they had gotten there made the only lamp in the room explode. Raven crossed her legs and began to levitate as she opened up her emergency kit.

Every Titan had their own emergency kits, the steel cases were designed by Cyborg and were engineered so that it contained exactly what each team member would specifically need. Naturally Raven's contained a teapot, some tea, a book, and a set of earplugs. Of course, each case also had a first aid kit, food, dehydrated water, and a locator beacon, save Cy, who also had a mechanic's box in his.

Rae pulled out the teapot, and the tea, casing them to hover in front of her. She brought out a lighter and held the button down with her powers. As if to clearly make her suffer, Sheriff Wayne burst through the door, quite literally, and walked in.

"Get up" he said as he lightly kicked Beast Boy in the ribs with one of his cowboy boots. BB groaned and awoke.

"So, you two say your some manner of super hero?" he asked, lighting a cigarette with the floating lighter.

"Yeah" said Raven as monotonously as possible, her gaze unaverted from her book.

"Nows your chance to prove it" said Wayne with a grin and a puff of his cigarette.

"How?" asked Beast Boy

"Well for starters your ship's been stolen." he said with a laugh as though someone had stolen a nickel from the tavern's tip jar.

"WHAT!?!?" exclaimed both Raven and Beast Boy at the same time.

"And" continued Wayne, clearly enjoying himself. "You owe the town $400 for your stay at the hotel. I suggest you prove yourselves worthy of investment" he snuffed out his cigarette beneath his foot and walked to the doorway. "By the way" he said, stopping briefly "If you turn out to really be super-heroes, then, you'll get all the gas you want. But if y'all are lying then" he paused for a moment while his hand hovered over his Glock "you don't want to know what will happen to y'all then"

"Uhhh...What now?" asked Beast Boy, scratching the back of his head.

Raven picked up the Aquious and put it in her kit. "Come on" she said as she put on a pair of Cyborg's patented 'Hov-o-power Sneaka's'. The wearer walked normally but hovered 3" above the ground as they did so, Cy used them to look taller at parties.

"Where are going?" said Beast Boy picking up his kit, which happened to be a back pack.

"The Desert" said Raven and they left the hotel and began what would soon become the worst hiking trip either had ever gone on.

The Desert was hot, grueling, and apparently hell bent on getting as much sand in Beast Boy's eyes, nose, and mouth as possible. Raven diverted the sandy wind with her powers, Beast Boy found that camels were not loved by the sand either.

"How much further!?!?" yelled Beast Boy, desperately trying to be heard over the roaring wind.

"How should I know?!" yelled Raven back.

"I thought you knew where we were going!?!?"

"Nope"

Beast Boy sighed heavily and trudged on.

After four hours of traveling through the snow, Beast Boy had had it. "THATS IT!" he shouted throwing his backpack to the ground. "I'm not going another step until you tell me where you're going! We've been walking for hours, I've got sand in my butt crack for crying out loud!!!" he stood there, huffing, had it not been 104 degrees out there would probably be steam coming off him.

Before Raven could concoct an answer, a large portion of the ground they were standing on vanished and they began to fall down a very long vertical tunnel. They fell for a good two minutes before they landed, rather hard, on the floor. They had ended up in an underground building made up of tan metal hallways that snaked around turning only at 90 degree angles, never bending.

In fact, the facility that Raven and Beast Boy had literally stumbled upon was miles of straight perfectly angled tunnels that stemmed form either the main control center, a large four story room about the rough area of five football fields melded into an octagon, or the silo. The Silo was the most fascinating part of the facility, a huge vertical tunnel that launched a high speed elevator that ran to all seven levels of the base and down to the facilities creator's private escape tunnel, some eight addition miles below them.

"Oh, hello there" said a man who was apparently there to great them. He was dressed in a pink Hawaiian shirt, kaki shorts, and his hair was blonde and spiked. All in all he could not of painted himself as gay more vividly. "You must be Beast Boy" he said, grabbing BBs hand and shaking it rather violently "hi. And you must be Raven" he did the same to Rae. "Oh this is just Fab-u-lous, you simply have to come with me, I made some roast duck and my boss is simply dying to meet you"

Raven and Beast Boy exchanged disturbed looks before following the man down one of the tunnel/hallway things. They went through so much hallway they were unsure anyone could possibly remember where they were going. They stopped at a pair of doors on opposite side of the hallway from each-other.

"By the way, my name is Clarence. You can freshen up in these rooms, guys on the right, gals on the left, OK" he clapped his hands, smiled a rather large toothless smile, and left.

Beast Boy took his room and Raven took hers, while they freshened up Clarence delivered a preliminary report to his boss.

"Do they suspect who I am?" asked his boss

"Oh don't be silly" said Clarence "we've taken far too many steps for them to notice so quickly"

"Good" said the mysterious person, smiling slightly. "Proceed as ordered, it's dinner time"

Cool another chapter already, review.

-mrbeans