Authoresses Note: You must like totally hate me! It's been like, what, three months? Well, I do have a reason. My computer got some kind of freaky hardware virus, and I had to keep wiping and reinstalling my little memory-whatever-thingy. So any new chapter I was working on got erased.
Why no use a floppy you say? Well, you see, I sort of really hate floppies. Like, a lot. Or any kind of memory storage device outside a computer. As soon as I touch them they like, un-format or something. I tried it once, but it wouldn't let me retrieve the file.
So here you go, my computer's nifty and fixed now. Enjoy!
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Raven sped quickly through the solid walls and doors of the castle, her movements unhindered. It was times like this, when nothing needed to be done but move that she felt truly at peace. Even lying in her bed at night had lost its calming effect, as Slade had recently taken to popping in and staring at her from some corner of the room, for reasons as of yet a mystery.
That man. Where did he get off thinking he could scare her into submission. That if she found him lurking behind enough doorways she'd roll over and give herself up? But no, that couldn't be it. There had to be some deeper meaning. And voila, there it was, like really stinky, nasty, filthy laundry. He wanted the throne. And the only way the ancient magic would except him as king would be for his queen to be of royal blood. But why did he have to be so creepy about it?
The half-demon just shrugged the question off as some kind of personality quirk that she'd never understand, and solidified outside the door that led to the stables. A hunched scarlet demon pulled the latch and ushered her inside, scuttling after her. A flaming skeletal horse (An overly theatrical show that her father insisted on) was quickly prepared and brought out. Raven mounted and it galloped, screaming, out into the courtyard.
The war preparations were being quickly carried out, the grounds covered in soldiers arming and organizing for battle. Wagons of food and supplies were being loaded along side catapults meant to launch flaming missiles over enemy walls. Winged demons soared overhead, some carrying burdens to be delivered elsewhere, others diving low and sparring with troops on the ground. These would be marching under Ravens command, Slade's army was, thankfully, on the other side of the city. They would be marching south, while the half-demons would be traveling in the opposite direction. Hopefully, he would die in battle, and she'd never have to see him again. But he always came back, just like a cold that way. Or the plague.
The air buzzed with anticipation for the upcoming battles, barely held in check by the captains that marched through the crowd and attempted to maintain order. It was the picture of entropy. If they didn't have blood on their claws soon, they would turn on each other and the attack would collapse before it began.
Raven urged her mount forward, one hand on the reins, the other gripping the golden mask. She looked out over the masses that streaked by as she sped headlong into the troops, disregarding the demons that had to dive out of the way to avoid being trampled by her steeds red-hot hooves. Then the deep resonating sound of a horn sounded and the crowd trembled with excitement, the call for battled rushed over them. A black pinprick appeared in the sky, and a massive clawed hand forced its way out. As the rest of the mammoth demon tore its way through the portal the scant bit of light that reached the kingdom vanished, eclipsed by the colossal Demon King.
The princess looked up at her father, knowing that the battle had officially begun, and gently placed the golden mask against her face, eyes screwed tightly shut against the assault she knew was coming. Like a living creature it reached out and clawed into her skin. Searing pain shot through her skull as the twisted horns planted themselves into bone. Then came the disorienting moment of not knowing who she was, or even what she was, before the mask shoved that part of her mind back into the deepest pits of her consciousness. When her eyes opened again there were four, and person that looked out of them was vicious, delighted in killing, and ruthlessly intelligent. The demon, for she could not truly be called anything else, gathered her power and spurred her flaming mount into a gallop towards her sire. Her only thoughts were of the slaughter to come.
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"The armies of Mechin and Gotham are coming out to meet us." A serpent-like scout informed the demon princess from its position on the ground. "They seem to have massed together, but their forces are minimal. Perhaps five hundred heavy robotic troops, and three thousand regular gunmen. They are traveling in what I can only assume they think is stealth." The creature snickered.
She frowned down at it. This couldn't be their only resistance. It was laughable from the two cities that were so stubborn in their vanity. They wouldn't fall without a fight. Something that would make their defeat that much sweeter. "They are both small nations. Our biggest worry isn't their militia, but the specialist forces. They will be sneaking in and weakening us before we even reach the city walls." The royal scanned the troops around her, and probed their minds for any strange thoughts. It took only a moment of searching to discover a soldier who had been listening with particular intensity to the scouts report, and her reaction.
She smiled without humor, and lashed out to catch him in her black magic's binding grip. "It seems they are already here. Send up the signal for an army wide head count. I want everyone who shouldn't be here brought to me alive."
The man she held struggled, then he looked up at her a smirked. "You won't win demon bitch." Raven snarled, and she felt, a second to late, that he had an electronic chip implanted in his brain. With a quick thought that she was unable to block, he sent out the news of his capture to whoever was listening for his reports. And then, in what was a mercy for him, it shorted itself out and liquefied his brain.
"Damn Mechins!" Raven roared and tossed his twitching body savagely to the ground. "They know we know." She stood for a moment, pondering how to best turn this to her advantage. Her eyes swept over her forces, camped between two miniature mountain ranges, with a river at their backs. I had taken some doing, and the death of half a troop of light infantry, but she was eventually able to coax the demons into some semblance of order. Possibilities raced across the surface of her mind, but when no brilliant plan immediately surfaced the gold-faced demon fell back on what she did best. Slaughter.
"Tell the troops to prepare themselves. We attack at nightfall." Raven felt the snake slither away to spread her message. As its presence faded she felt for a moment alone. The soldiers that had been moving about her, attending to their business, had fled at the first glimpse of her wrath on the Mechin spy. Her red cloak whipped around her legs, and the whistle of the wind assaulted her sensitive ears. Something in the back of her mind protested weakly to the horrible slaughter that was to come, but it felt somehow foreign and distant. The demon just shrugged it off and made her down to her army, feeling with satisfaction the horns atop her head slowly sink deeper into her skull.
Perhaps, this time, they would remain firmly in place.
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Authoresses Note II: Sorry again for the wait. The next chapter will rock hard though.
You can't rush the set-up!
I also promise two things that are coming.
1) The other Teen Titans.
2) More on Slade.
Now something special!
This is a sneak peek to the next chapter, but it won't be in the actual story. It's just a glimpse of what is happening in other parts of the world.
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BONUS SHORT-STORY: The Rise of a King
A hot jet of steam whistled out of the hot metal, set in place by delicate pressurized machinery. A dark-skinned teenager cursed and fumbled in his toolbox, for a panicked second not finding the tool he was searching for. Then his groping fingers grasped the familiar shaft of a wrench, and he hefted easily, wrapping its metal clamps around an offending bolt. With a soft grunt he twisted it savagely, and the air cleared.
He put the instrument down and surveyed his work with a critical eye. Every gear and wire gleamed up at him, each circuit sparkled with potential. He reached out and lovingly switched on the power. Immediately life burst into the inert pieces of metal, and a subtle hum filled the air. The boy, nearly a man, sighed contently and sat back, basking for a moment in the high that came from perfectly tuning a broken machine. But the moment quickly passed, as it always did, and he felt the flawlessness begin to almost inconspicuously decay. It could be years before this particular apparatus ever so much a hiccupped, but that was still to soon. So with a resigned sigh, he closed the hatch to the power generator, gathered his tools, and began the long trek back to his garage.
"Just a few more tries, I know I'll get it right." He mumbled to himself. "Infinite energy. Light rebounded. So simple." He palmed the lock and the metal door swooshed open in front of him. Discarded and broken bits of machinery were scattered across the huge workspace. Half completed projects pleaded gently for his attention, but he walked past all of them, and to the smooth silver orb at the back of the room. It was his greatest accomplishment, and all it would take to complete it was the right amount of a power boost, just enough to get it started, but not enough to overload its delicate glass circuitry. He kneeled down in front of it and gazed longingly into his distorted reflection, searching vainly for an answer. "What am I missing?"
"Victor!" A high-pitched voice echoed off the walls around him. "Victor, where are you?"
The teen rolled his eyes, and stood up. "Back here Mom." The greatest discovery in the history of Mechin was going to have to wait.
"What ever are you doing all the way back here?" She called, a slightly annoyed tone in her voice. "I need you!"
He began walking towards his mothers voice, shaking his head sadly. She thought his 'tinkering' in the workshop to be something he'd one day grow out of. She didn't understand what it was like to make things come alive with your own two hands, to feel the power of having your thoughts become real. She was just so… helpless. "Just follow my voice Mom." Of course he could find her with his sensors, but what fun would that be? Maybe a little time lost in the metal jungle would make her less likely to come barging in in the future.
"Erg, what is all this stuff?" Something crashed to the ground a few yards, and few feet of solid steel, in front of him. "EEK! It BIT me! VICTOR STONE!" She screamed horribly.
Victor hastened his pace, flipping on the scanner mounted in his arm. It blipped her location, and he stopped in front of a ten foot high crate, the contents of which he couldn't quite remember. He bent down and wedged his fingers under it, then with a suppressed groan, lifted it over his head, and set in down behind him.
The Queen of Mechin, or Cyboress, eyes wide, crown askew, huffed at him from her perch atop a pile of half-finished robots. A tiny metal dog was snapping threateningly at her, and chasing its own tail. Victor reached down and plucked it up, flipping the off switch on its underside. "Now, what did you want Mom?"
She sniffed. "Well, if this wasn't such a dire situation, you'd be in serious trouble for that one mister." She put a foot out and stepped off the heap gingerly. Not a single robot moved.
"And what would that be?" To dire to chew him out for making, as his mother put it, 'dangerous thingies'?
She didn't even bother to straighten her dress, but looked him full in the eye. "We have to evacuate the castle."
The teen blanched. "What?"
The Cyboress reached out and took his hand, quickly leading her stunned son to the emergency pods at the other end of the room. "You'd have heard all about it if you didn't horde yourself up in this place, and kept your communications on once in a while."
"But why didn't you send someone to get me?" His shocked mind slowly booting up again. "And what the hell is going on?"
"There's a war going on. And it seems that they've reached the castle." She led him to a steel door with red stripes slashing across it. She placed a shaky palm flat against the sensor, and the door opened. "As for the reason I didn't send anyone," She laughed humorlessly, and slid into the passenger seat inside the attached pod. "they have they're own families to save."
"A war?" He looked at his mother breathlessly as he clicked on his safety belt and began the start up systems. "Why don't I know about a war going on in my own god-damn kingdom?" His teeth ground together as he maneuvered the small ship away from the building and swung around to face the exit tunnel. Automatic controls kicked in and launched them out into the night. For a moment everything seemed calm, then the sound of gunshots and the roar of beasts reached the pod. "Christ. Why didn't you tell me!"
"It only started yesterday. We got word from Gotham of a massive force of demons moving towards our kingdoms. It could only mean one thing."
"Azarath is attacking." Victor said through a mouth suddenly gone dry.
"Exactly." He mother nodded. "We sent five hundred heavy troops forward to help, but we just weren't, aren't ready for something like this." He glanced back at his mother, who's chocolate complexion had paled, making her seem almost ghostlike. Her dark eyes were wide, and white knuckles gripped the armrests. "Your father, he went on ahead. To defend the kingdom." She closed her eyes and seemed to become smaller. "He told me, to tell you, that you would know what to do. You would know when the time came." She fell silent then, reality crushing her.
"Yeah." Victor turned back to the controls, and steered the escape pod away from the battle raging just outside the castle gates.
BOOM. The ship rocked violently, and a dozen lights suddenly began to flash red. The sucking sound of air and screeching of alarms penetrated the quite. The world tilted violently, as they plunged to the earth. The teen scrambled desperately at the controls, but nothing responded. Their escape pod had just become a coffin.
Just as he had given up, the ground halted its race towards them, and with a sickening jolt, the ship stopped in midair. A black cocoon had wrapped itself around them, and they were being lowered to earth. "What's going on?" He heard his mother whisper from the back. I have no idea. Was his unspoken response.
When they touched down the darkness retreated and all they could do was sit in shock and listen to the distant sounds of battle. Then it was back, and with vicious force, ripped the front end of the ship off and flung it away. Victor reached under his seat for the gun he knew was hidden there, but before he could touch it, it was lifted away from him in a coat of dark energy. A figure floated above them, and held out her hand for the weapon, curling its fingers around it. "Hello there. Not trying to escape the show I hope." A rough voice spoke. A glint of gold, and an outline of horns against the hood it wore was all the hint they got to the speakers identity. "The Cyborg wasn't rude enough to leave before the end. But then again, it did turn out to be his end, now didn't it?" The voice was almost feminine.
"What have you done to my husband?" The Cyboress launched herself out of her seat, straight at the apparition. "Demon!" Like everyone in the city, she was half machine, but her enhancements were purely cosmetic. She had no more strength or speed than an average human, and with a flick of its hand, she went flying.
"Mom!" Victor ran towards her, but a wall of darkness stopped him a surely as a double reinforced steel wall. He spun to look at her attacker, who had turned to face him, though it's face was still hooded.
"Only half, actually. So you're the prince." It croaked. "What does it feel like to be the only royal Stone left?"
"What?" He glanced back at his mother, her breathing evident in the rise and fall of her chest. "What are you talking about?"
The demon just flung out an arm, and his mother was covered in darkness, then, with deliberate slowness, closed her hand into a fist. Victor flung himself at the barrier, pounding and screaming, but it didn't give. And then, through the transparency of the magic, saw his mother crushed into a ball, saved from her tortured cries by the very shield that stopped him from rescuing her.
He stood in shock for a moment, frozen in horrified silence. Then, his machine parts, normally hidden beneath a layer of prosthetic skin, began to glow and come alive. The full potential of his birth-rite sputtered into life and filled him with knowledge and power that could only be gained one way. He had just inherited the kingdom.
"So, Cyborg," It spat the title out like an insult. "Is it going to be as easy to conquer you as it was your father?"
The new Cyborg balled up his fists and flung himself at the monster who had torn apart his world. His right arm reassembled itself into a glowing cannon, and launched a bolt at the demon.
It dodged, flinging itself out of the way of the oncoming missile. "That's new." It whispered. But another barrage was already coming, and it was to busy not getting fried to say anything else. Then, a particularly hazardous shot passed, and its cloak caught on fire.
"Booya!" Cyborg shouted, and its cape was taken off and tossed aside. "Wha?" He looked over the figure that now stood, uncloaked, in front of him. It wore a horned and golden mask, red eyes peered out of four slits, but without any covering, one thing was clear. "You're a girl!" He yelled, attack momentarily forgotten.
"Yes." It answered softly, and raised two finger to its temple. Power surged through his mind, and overwhelmed him. His systems slowly booted down under the weight of black energy.
The demon stood over him for a moment, ready to make the killing strike, when a presence shoved its way into her mind. Bring the royal children to me. I may have some use for them. He left just as suddenly, his booming thoughts still echoing through his daughters skull.
Raven looked down at the unconscious prince, now king, before her. The false skin that covered his machine side had burned away to reveal shining blue metal. "Yes father." She whispered aloud, and hoisted him up with her magic. "Whatever you say."
Gold glinted with malice as the Demon Princess picked her way through the wreckage and back to the war.
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Authoresses Note III: lol, that was longer than the actual chapter. But you deserved it for waiting. So, Chow For Now! And Cya later!
Also, whoever can tell me (first) what TBC means, and why people put it at the end of their chapters gets a hug. And, Give me your name and I'll use it in my next chapter!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
--Queen of the Gnomes,
NumbuhZero