Another day, another long chapter. Sorry if I have to keep you guys waiting but when you're as busy as I am in the real world, sometimes you never have enough time putting this story together. But don't worry, I promise that there would be shorter chapters in the days ahead. Now let's go over the stats of the last chapter. I've got two reviews and 44 hits and I got to say I'm real impressed. One of the reviewers was Rahkshi500, saying that he missed the last chapter before the other, but he said it's still awesome. But let me remind you Rahk that it's not Gamma Labs they're going to meet this mystery character, it's the caverns. Get your head in the game. Another reviewer is a new guy called Retarded Book Author. (Don't ask… He has his reasons.) He says that he likes my adaptation of Doom3 and Teen Titans and is a big Doom fan like me. But he also wanted to know if I could add characters from the old Doom games. RBA, hate to ruin everything but uh… I'm not doing that. I mean the Arachnotron, Spider Mastermind, and Pain Elemental would've make great characters for the story but by the way I'm doing it, I can't put them in anywhere in the chapters. But if the folks at ID really put them in the Doom3 games, then they would've made cool demons. Sorry about it bud. Now here comes part three of the Mars Surface on Doomed Titans. The team has officially entered the cave and has to travel through a connection of tunnels to reach Gamma. But on the way, they meet a familiar face that they wished they hadn't seen. Will they get out of there before it's too late?
Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans or Doom 3
Chapter Twenty-seven: The Return of the Vagary
Delta Labs Level 1, Delta Systems Control: November 15, 2145, 9:36 P.M.
"Emergency power only. All Delta operations suspended."
That was what the announcement said the sixth time. The marine counted that himself. After he survived a train wreck back at the monorail and reaching his destination without getting killed by the gun torrent, he made it to Delta in one piece. But the problem he has now is that the entire first level of Delta's offline and all access in the base is shut down. When he was finding out what seem to be the cause of the problem, he discovered that the Data Linker wasn't installed at the control center of Delta System Control. Thankfully, he found the Linker at Delta's main lobby and headed back to the control center, without any attack from any of the creatures yet. Now he's back at Systems Control with a Data Linker in his hand ready to install it in the center controller.
Main Marine: "Well here goes nothing."
The marine approached the control center and inserted the linker into the center. Once he done that, the lights started to blink on and off, and screens were booting up, and the 3D digital map went online. But just when he thought he was finished another announcement boomed through the speakers, a little scratchy at first but understandable.
"Warning: reactor core- core- core offline. Follow safety procedure ooooorange."
The red light then appeared on the right side of the 3D map, popped out of it, moved to the center, and gave the marine a close up picture of the reactor core. He observed the map and could tell what happened.
Main Marine: "Looks like I see the problem. The reactor core isn't working. Better get it back on if I want to continue. The only problem is how do I get there?"
While he tried to figure out how to get there, and noticed something at the farther end of the room. There was use to be a static screen next to the exit, but now it went back on and showed a vid comm. screen waiting for a request. He kept staring at the screen and scratched his head.
Main Marine: "Now who would be calling at a time like this?"
After trying to get a good answer for himself, he decided to head for the screen and see who's calling. Once he approached the console, he typed the key sequences and the computer on the screen responded.
"Connection Established."
The screen then went static again and in a second, showed a person's face. That person's face was none other then Sergeant Kelly. The marine sighed in relief when he saw the Sarge on the screen but when he was going to say something; he looked at the corner of the screen and realized it was just a transmitted message. So instead of talking, he watched the screen and see what the message is.
Sergeant Kelly: "Marine, this is Kelly. If you're watching this you're tougher then I thought. I guess things aren't always what they seem. Plans have changed. I don't know if you heard, but the UAC has gone straight to Hell. All communications to the surviving marines have been blocked off, and more men are dying. Plus all of Delta's compromised so no one won't stand a chance against the hostiles. I'm afraid we're the only hope left to stop this madness once and for all. Meet up with me at the entrance of Delta 4 and we can put an end to this. Sergeant Kelly out."
The screen went static and was back to its original logo. When the transmission was finished, the Marine heard hissing and growling noises from the exit. He looked at it hallway and saw shadows of the hoard of creatures heading towards him. It was then he sighed and realized that this was a trap all along.
Main Marine: "Thanks for the tip Sarge."
He then took out a grenade, twisted it, and tossed it to the hoard. When he was done with that, the Marine took out his plasma rifle and waited for the explosion to happen. Once it did, he charged right in and started blasting away at the monsters.
Mars Surface, Underground Cave: November 15, 2145, 9:42 P.M.
Back outside, the Titans have made it to their third destination, an underground cave, and after a few hesitant looks they all went in. The real problem is that the cave was so dark; that you couldn't see much and the last thing you want is to be at a dead end if you lost. Luckily, Alex told them that they had installed flashlights on their shoulders, so now they could see where they were going. It wasn't long before Robin, who was next to Alex the whole time, turned his head to him and asked him something about the tunnel.
Robin: "Excuse me Alex, but I was wondering why would a tunnel be next to the construction site we just passed?"
Alex: "You mean that construction site we've completely trashed?"
Robin: "Um… Yeah, that."
Alex: "Well, like I said, before, a building cannot be complete without heat, electricity, water, air, and so on. But the problem of that is where to put all this stuff? They can't leave it all outside because the electrical storms and high winds will damage them beyond repair. So they decided to put some underground tunnels to put all of it. Why do you think we put the UAC around mountainsides in the first place? Lovely views?"
Robin: "Actually, I didn't pay attentions to the views here much."
Alex: "Anyways… Most of the pipes and wires that go around the installation must be place in the caverns, so lightning or winds won't disrupt anything. You can tell from above us that these pipes and wires must be secured and operational when it needs power from one sector to another. One drawback is that and earthquake or an aftershock can collapse an entire cave and shut off a building indefinitely. Fortunately we added aftershock stabilizers to keep the caverns from falling apart. This is one of the many reasons the UAC is a comfortable and safe environment."
Robin snickered a little and shook his head.
Robin: "Yeah… All comfortable and safe until all Hell breaks loose."
They continued to walk straight until with spotted an elevator lift at the end of the path. They all stopped when they saw it and observed it.
Starfire: "Why would there be a access lift in a dark cave?"
Alex: "My guess is that if there's not enough room, they decided to install the pipes and wires in the underground areas. And since there's no other way around this, it's our meal ticket. Everyone in."
Alex approached the panel next to the doors and clicked on the "Call lift" icon. Once the doors opened, the team went in and the guardian pressed the "Descend lift" icon on the panel inside the lift. Soon enough, the doors closed and the lift moved downward to the underground. While the lift was taking them down, Alex took his PDA out to find the right path to Gamma Labs. Robin then looked at the PDA as well and could tell that he's having a hard time with it, so he looked at him and moved one of his eyebrows up.
Robin: "Are you sure you know where we're going?"
Alex: "I hope I know, but the underground areas have a series to tunnels. So it's going to take me a while to figure out where they will take us."
Raven: "Why do I get the feeling that this is going to be a long day?"
Alex: "Well we don't want to waist our time. We still have our suits on and we're up to half a tank of air."
Beast Boy: "Hey, if we're going underground and away from the outside, why don't we remove the suits so that we would save some air?"
Al looked at the changeling and cocked an eyebrow.
Alex: "Just because we're heading down to the caverns below doesn't mean we're really out of the storm. We have to keep the suits on even if we're underground. The last thing I want is to have my lungs explode inside me."
BB then bowed his head and shook it.
Beast Boy: "I hate it when things don't go my way."
They kept waiting for the lift to stop at the ground floor. It was about to make it but when the lift was about seven feet from the ground, it immediately stopped. Then it started to shake and the lights turned off. The team was startled when that happened.
Robin: "What happened?"
Alex: "Must be a small aftershock. But don't worry about that, the shock resistant stabilizers are keeping everything in tact. It will be back up and running in no time."
While they were waiting, they immediately heard the sound of scampering feet around them.
Cyborg: "Um… What was that noise?"
Alex listened in on the pitter-patter and had a bad feeling about it.
Alex: "Sounds like we're not alone."
Finally, the light of the lift went back on and the shaft continued to descend. It made it to the ground floor and the doors opened up. Once the team left the lift, they noticed the place is completely dark, so dark that you can't see anything.
Raven: "Great… Just what we need, total darkness."
Robin: "Well whatever the case, we have to continue our way to Gamma. If we can find some light around here."
Alex looked around and spotted a small generator with a two wires coming out of it that are used to operate the lights.
Alex: "Found it."
He walked straight to the generator and look at the screen that reads, 'Lights Generator'.
Alex: "Time to shed some light into the situation."
He then clicked the "Power On' and in a second, the lights around them turned on. But when they were turned on, the team found out that they're spider webs on the walls and ceilings of the cave.
Robin: "I got the bad feeling about this."
Alex: "You and me both Rob. Everyone stay alert."
Alex walked forward and turned to the right corner while the Titans follow him. When they made that turn, they noticed the floor all scattered with jackhammers, shovels, tools, weapons, and ammo, but there were no sign of workers down there. They knew what happened to them and they don't want to be part of the body count. So they continued forward as Alex stopped to pick up some plasma cells and clips for his merely empty weapons. As they headed down the cavern, they were at a fork in the road. On the left was another access cavern with a catwalk and an automatic door, on the right is a shaft that's caved in. The team looked at both ends while Beast Boy sighed.
Beast Boy: "Just our luck. I'm guessing the path on the right was the quickest way out."
Alex took his PDA out and checked the map to see if that was the appropriate path. Once he found the spot they're in, he rolled his eyes around and gave a defeated groan.
Alex: "Unfortunately, you're right BB. That path on the right should've been the quickest way to get to Gamma, but it appears to be caved in. Looks like we have to take the long route."
With that, the changeling slapped his front side of his helmet with his hand and shook it.
Beast Boy: "I knew it."
They all turned left and approached the catwalk over a large gap hole. Once they approached the door, the door slid open and they entered another access cavern. They kept walking through and long tunnel with metallic crates scattered all across the area and a couple of tools. But hanging on the ceilings were a few unfortunate souls entrapped in webbing. Yet another sign on things to come for the Titans. The team continued their walk down the cavern, but once they were halfway the lighting started to blink and changed to bloody red. When that happened, six Trites came down from the ceiling and hissed when they saw the team. Instinctively, Alex took his machine gun out and fired it on the mutated spiders. But when he thought he was done with that, six Lost Souls flew out of the corner tunnel and charged straight to them. Cyborg took action as he stepped forward, aimed his chain gun, and opened fire. The rounds ate the flaming skulls and they all disappeared in a cloud of smoke. When the dust settled and the lights went back to normal, the two lowered their weapons and Alex looked at the Titans.
Alex: "Looks like we know what happened to everyone in the caverns. We have to keep moving forward. If they didn't know we're here, they do now."
Everyone nodded as they all proceeded and turned the right corner. They then spotted another lift that would take them further down into the caverns, with its door shafts opened, waiting for them to get in. They entered the shaft as Robin pressed on the "Descend Lift" icon on the screen. The doors closed and the lift went down to another cave. But when they were going down, they heard some hissing sounds from above and look up to see a gang of Trites coming down. And to make matters worse the roof of the lift was gone, letting the spiders come in easily. Seeing that, Alex readies his weapon and alerted the team.
Alex: "Titans, kill them! Don't let any of them get into the lift!"
Quickly, Alex, Starfire, Cyborg, and Raven shoot down the mutated spiders with bullets, star bolts, and aurora blasts. It killed the spiders up front with blood falling into the shaft and onto the team, while more of them came from behind. They continued firing and reloading until the shaft came to a complete stop and reached the main shaft.
Alex: "Everyone out!"
The door opened as the team raced out of there with Alex far behind. Once he left the shaft, he took out a grenade, armed it, and threw it back into the shaft. He ran away from the lift and turned the left corner where the team went to and took cover while the Trites landed on the shaft and was about to leave it to hunt their prey. That was until the grenade exploded and killed them all in one blast. Lucky for the Titans, they were taking cover close to the corner, wiping away all the spider gunk on their HAZMAT suits.
Raven: "Gross…"
Alex wiped the spider blood off his helmet and looked at Rae.
Alex: "Just be fortunate you have that suit on ya. No telling where the blood from those things came from. Let's get going before more of them show up."
Alex took the lead as he headed towards a door at the farther end while the team followed. When they were about to reach the door, it opened upward and an Imp was guarding it, shrieking at the intruders. It then hurled a fireball at them and the team ducked. But Beast Boy took his Grabber out and open fired, letting a string of thin green energy getting a hold of the ball of flame. He then fired the ball back at the creature and it made a direct hit. Once it dissolves to death, another Imp leapt from the right side. It was going to throw a fireball at them, but Alex took his double-barrel shotgun and fired it at the creature, putting two holes through the mid section and dies in ash. They headed straight through a door and entered the storage area loaded with crates and tools. One of the crates was broken open and cases of cells were scattered everywhere. Alex decided to pack them all up for himself if they see something not friendly. When he was done with that, they left storage through another access door on the right and were in another cavern. There were a couple of scaffoldings on both sides of the cavern with construction lights illuminating the way. But at the top opening of the cave was the strange growth they encountered a couple of times. As they kept walking, seven Ticks and seven Trites came down from the ceiling and headed straight to the Titans. Alex and Cyborg started attacking them with their machine gun and chain gun, killing them in a couple of shots. With all of them dead, they kept moving. But it wasn't long before they stop when the lights went out and the opening hole where the growth was burst into flames as the ground shook. The team remained in there position and watched the fiery hole.
Robin: "Uh… Alex? Is there a lava bank below us?"
Alex: "Impossible! The closest place for molten rock is like ten to fifteen miles below us. There's no way it could be here."
Robin: "Then what do you think it is?"
Suddenly, coming out of the flames were three Cacodemons spitting out blasts of energy at them. The team duck down while Raven quickly formed a dome to deflect them. Alex then looks up at the dome to see the floating heads.
Alex: "Well that could explain it. Raven…"
Raven: "I'm one step ahead of you."
The Telepath waved her hands while keeping the dome intact as the scaffoldings around them were covered in her black energy. They started to shake then lifted up a few feet away to the ground, breaking apart and few straight towards the Cacodemons. All the parts penetrated the skin of the creatures and it killed them all. When they're all dead, the fire in the growth hole disappeared and the lights were back on. Raven let go of the dome as the team got up and looked around to see if there's any more monsters around there.
Alex: "Area's clear, for now. Let's get out of here before more come."
They continued their journey through the caverns as they turned the left corner and saw two Vulgars eating a corpse. The two looked at them team and shrieked, as they started forming green fireballs and threw them at the team. The team quickly split up in two directions, avoiding the flames as Cyborg took them out with the chain gun. But just as soon as the two died, seven Trites and six Ticks appeared from the ceiling and headed to the separated teammates. Alex then used his machine gun to snip them off while Robin threw an exploding disk at the rest. With them all dead, the team joined together a continued walking down the cavern. As they continued walking, they noticed something at the farther end of the cave. There's what appears to be a huge lift with multiple crates, big and small, and dim litted lighting on the ceiling. The Titans looked at the lift and was a little unsure of it.
Beast Boy: "What is that?"
Alex took a good look at the lift and smiled.
Alex: "That Beast Boy is our way through the caverns and back to the surface."
Robin: "Does it even work?"
Alex: "Well we're about to find out. C'mon."
The team kept walking straight to the lift that would take them back up to the surface. But while they kept on walking, Raven then spotted something odd on the ground. It almost looks like a small boulder, but it looked slimy and had spikes sticking out of it. She remembered seeing something like this before, back at the cargo area from the warehousing district. She was about to figure all this out, until Alex called her out.
Alex: "Hey Raven! What are you waiting for? Get on the lift and let's go while we still have air left in our tanks."
Raven looked to the lift and saw her teammates already on it. She then levitated off the ground and flew straight towards them.
Raven: "I'm coming!"
She floated straight towards the lift still thinking where that strange object she found came from. Once everyone was in, Alex approached the lift control monitor and clicked on the icon that says, "Transfer to Caverns Higher Level." After he did that, the lift moved upwards in a diagonal direction. While it was going up, Alex looked through his PDA again and gave them the details.
Alex: "All right, if I'm reading this right this lift will take us to the surface level and we'll be one step closer to the lab."
Cyborg: "What happen if this lift stalls?"
Alex: "There are a couple of maintenance shafts around the place. If this lift shuts down, we'll use the shafts to get us up there. Of course the downside of it is that it will take us longer taking that path and there would be monsters all over us, but it would be the only option just in case."
Robin: "Well let's pray that this lift can get us up there with no trouble. Cause if it does, then we'll be in grave danger."
Suddenly, they all heard a loud shriek as the lift started to shake violently. That made everyone startled and nearly fall to the metal floor and was unaware about what happened.
Beast Boy: "What was that?!"
Alex slowly got and looked around the area. He noticed a few spider webs around the walls and ceiling, but as they continue to go further up more webbing was everywhere.
Alex: "I'm afraid we just found trouble."
He then looked up to see where the sound came from as the Titans did the same thing. What they saw was a huge nest resting above the tracks of the lift and they were moving closer to it. But what they were shocked at the most a huge female creature with the lower half body as a spider and many eyes. That creature was none other then the Vagary. The team was in complete shock when they saw it eye to eye, yet surprise when they see it again after their first encounter.
Cyborg: "A Vagary? I thought we got rid of it back at the warehouse!"
Alex: "Apparently, there seems to be more then one. And by the looks of it, it's very hungry."
The spider creature, upon seeing the Titans, jumped off the nest and landed on the lift that was above her. It then shrieked and was about to eat its first victim. But before it does that, some dark energy engulfed it and it couldn't move. It immediately got shoved from the left by force, off the lift, and fell down to the bottom floor. The team wasn't sure what happened until they all turned to see Raven with hands cover in faded black energy.
Raven: "Yep, it was hungry."
Alex then hurried to the edge of the lift where the Vagary fell off of to see if it's gone. Turned out, the held on with it's pincers and was scattering up to the lift. Alex then shook his head after seeing the creature catching up to them.
Alex: "Bad news, the Vagary is still on the move!"
Quickly, the Titans approached Alex and saw the creature on their tail. As it was heading up, the female spider then screamed the loudest scream and raised its hands to the air. They didn't know what it was doing until they some hissing noises from behind. When they turned around they all saw a hoard of Ticks and Trites coming down the ceiling and scampering towards them.
Beast Boy: "Worst news, it's not alone!"
Alex: "Damn it! Looks like we have to take them out ASAP! Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy, slow the Vagary down as much as you can. Robin and Cyborg, you're with me. Take them down!"
Immediately, the team separated and followed the orders from their guardian. Starfire flew up in the air and shoot her star bolts at the Vagary, while Raven levitated a few crates that was on the lift and threw them at it. Beast Boy was looking for something that can slow it down as well and spotted stacks of flammable barrels at the right corner. He pointed his grabber at one of the barrels and got a hold of it through a beam of light. He moved the barrel quickly to the Vagary and let go of the trigger, launching the barrel straight to the creature and blew up on impact. In a matter of seconds, the three Titans teamed and slow the Vagary down with all the resources they could come up with. Meanwhile, Robin, Cyborg, and Alex were handling the Ticks and Trites their own way. Alex and Cyborg were taking them down one by one by using the weapons while Robin took his R-Sword out and sliced the spiders to bits. But when they kill half of them, another half came down and continued the attack. So the three kept on attacking the spiders at every direction, hoping that they won't do something too drastic. But when Robin did another swing to kill a Trite, it exploded, causing him to fly away from the hoard and hit on the guardrail. Lucky for him, he didn't break through the rail and fall off the edge of the tracks, or that story would be over. He shook off the sudden impact and looked up to see a couple of more spiders heading towards him. He quickly got up, took out a few exploding disks, and threw them at the mutated spiders. Once they're dead, he then charged in with sword in hand and joined the others in an assault. He stood behind Alex and continued slicing his sword around while the guardian kept shooting the Ticks and Trites down with his machine gun. The guardian looked back to see Robin attacking the spiders.
Alex: "Hey, are you kay?"
Robin: "Yeah… Totally forgot about the spiders exploding."
Alex: "Well be extra careful. Last thing I want is your head blown off your neck. Shit!"
He then fired a few more spiders that were coming close to him and reloaded his weapon. Soon enough, everyone thought they got the situation under control. But as the lift continued to go up, more webbing was everywhere, including on the tracks. The wheels were getting caught up by the gunk as the lift continued to slow to a crawl. It then finally came to a stop as the team realized it but continued to attack. Cyborg, shredding the spiders with his chain gun looked at Alex and asked him.
Cyborg: "What the hell happened to the lift?"
Alex: "Must be the webbing jamming it up. We're stuck!"
He spun around in a circle and killed five Ticks and five Trites. While he was doing that, he noticed that the place was crawling with spiders and Rae and BB were running out of things to throw back at the Vagary. He then spotted a maintenance door on the right side of the lift and realized that it's now or never.
Alex: "It's getting awfully crowded here! Everyone fall back to the maintenance shaft at once!"
Everyone looked at Alex and saw the maintenance door as well. They all immediately raced to the door, mowing down spiders in their path. The door slid upward and the team went in for safety. But Alex stopped at the entrance door and turned to see the large army of spiders and the Vagary coming up to the lift heading towards them. He took out two grenades, armed them, and threw them to the ground. He left the lift access area as the spiders were crawling over the grenades. Within seconds, the grenades exploded, killing a dozen of spiders and destroying the doorway to maintenance. The team was fortunate enough to avoid the blast and was a few feet away from the damaged door. With the threat out of the way for now, the team gathered together to figure out what to do next.
Beast Boy: "Okay, so much for taking the lift up. Now what?"
Alex: "Well, as of right now our only option is to head up to the surface by foot. The problem is that with that Vagary on our tail, we won't stand a chance. Damn it! If I had a rocket launcher in my hand it would make this easy for us to escape."
Robin: "So what do you think we should do?"
Alex: "Like a said before Robin, keep walking up until we reach the surface level. If we see the Vagary, we must fight it with whatever we have. Let's go."
The team carefully walked down the narrow hallway, keeping their eyes peeled for anything unusual. After turning one or two corners, they were three Ticks coming from the front and three Trites to the rear. Cyborg and Alex were at both ends of the group and saw the spiders coming out of the narrow vents. They quickly fired their weapons at them and killed the spiders. Now that it's clear, the team continued walking down the hallway until they reached a door. The door then slid open as the team passed through it and entered another cavern. They turned right and continued walking until they saw what appears to be another lift, only smaller. The Titans were about to head straight to the lift until they heard an explosion from above followed by rocks and boulders coming down. Everyone quickly backed up to avoid the falling debris then looked up at the hole on the ceiling. That's when the Vagary crawled out of the hole and fell to the floor, landing on its spider legs. It then screamed when it looked at the Titans and waved its hands to start levitating boulders around it. It then threw them at the group but Raven stopped them with her own levitation powers and was about to launch them back at the female creature. When Alex saw the telepath doing that, he immediately panicked and tried to stop her.
Alex: "No wait, STOP!"
But it was too late. Raven threw the boulders at the Vagary and half of them hit it. The creature went flying to the end, crashed through the lift, and got smashed on the wall. Everyone stared blankly at the lift that was destroyed then looked back at Rae who she too was shocked completely. She slowly blushed and smiled a little bit in both embarrassment and pity.
Raven: "Uh… Oops, my bad."
The team was going to argue about what Raven had done until another explosion at the same spot where the creature crashed into the wall. When they turned their heads, they saw the Vagary jumping out of the crash site and was angrier then ever. Alex took action and as he took out his plasma rifle and started firing projectiles at the creature. Starfire joined in as she flew up in the air and tossed her star bolts at it. But when they start firing, the spider monster started to jump up and latched onto the rocky wall, then started running on all legs to avoid the shots. Realizing they have no shot in taking it down, Alex gave the team the worse case scenario while he kept shooting.
Alex: "It's no use. We can't face it like this. We have to get to higher ground if we are able to stop it!"
Cyborg: "And how are we going to do that? The lift's trashed!"
Alex turned his head left and right to find an alternate route to reach the top. That's when he spotted a scaffolding that goes all the way to the ceiling and up there is a tunnel of that strange growth. Upon looking at it, he came up with an idea.
Alex: "We're taking the scaffolding. Everyone climb up and don't stop for anything!"
The team looked at Alex and thought he was crazy. But they decided to trust him and headed to the scaffolding. Alex then put down his rifle and looked at Starfire flying through the air while shooting star bolts at the Vagary.
Alex: "Starfire, keep that thing busy while we make our escape!"
Starfire looked down at Alex, nodded, and went back to the assault. Alex hurried to the scaffolding where the rest of the Titans were, climbing the ladder like structure up the first scaffolding and to the other. Alex soon climbed up after the Titan boys while Raven flew up to the top part. They all were heading up to the top of the scaffolding while Star continues to fire at the spider monster. She kept on throwing her bolts of green energy at the creature, but it kept on jumping and dodging the projectiles. As she kept on shooting, or trying to take out the creep, the team finally climbed up to the top of the scaffolding where the growth is. Beast Boy was starring at the growth, a little unsure about all this.
Beast Boy: "So let me guess this straight. You want us to go into this strange hole that this growth created."
Alex: "Correct."
Beast Boy: "Yet you have no idea where it goes and we have to go through it without even knowing what's on the other side."
Alex: "You could say that."
The changeling immediately turned around and freaked out.
Beast Boy: "Are you out of your damn mind!?! There's no way that I'm going in there!"
Alex: "Then I guess that you want to stay here with our little spidey friend down there.
BB slowly looked down and saw the Vagary scampering around, being distracted by Starfire and her constant bolt assault. Swallowing a lump, he looked back at his guardian and slowly smiled.
Beast Boy: "I'm going in."
So he quickly jumped off the scaffolding and landed on the growth tunnel. Soon enough everyone was getting in the tunnel except Alex. He looked down to see Starfire still taking it to the Vagary.
Alex: "Hey Star, time to go!"
The Tamaranean stopped firing, looked at Alex, and nodded. She flew up to Alex and headed straight into the tunnel. The spider creature saw it happening, so it headed straight towards side of the scaffolding and climbed up to Alex. When Alex saw that, he armed a grenade and tossed it down to the bottom part of the cave. When he jumped into the tunnel and the Vagary was about to reach it, until the grenade exploded and caused the scaffolding to tip over with the spider monster of the side. It immediately fell and crashed on the cavern floor with parts of the scaffolding collapsed all around it.
In the growth tunnel, the team kept going through the dark slimy hole that was moving around like its alive. They've been turning left and right and going up a couple of places, but there seems to be no end to this passage. Beast Boy then laid a hand on the wall of the growth to hold his balance, but realizing what it is, remove his hand immediately, and shake the red goo off of him.
Beast Boy: "Eeeewwww… I don't know what I was thinking going in here."
Cyborg: "Relax BB, at least the suit is protecting you from what this is. No idea where it came from but you may never know if it's infective."
Beast Boy intentionally sighed and bowed his head down.
Beast Boy: "I should've been eaten alive when I had the chance."
The Titans kept walking and thought they were going to be in this tunnel forever. That's when they saw a light at the end of the tunnel.
Alex: "This is it!"
They immediately raced to the end of the strange tunnel to get out of the strange growth. Once they got out of it, they were in what appears to be another storage room, only a whole lot bigger, loaded with freight boxes, crates and barrels. Alex positioned his plasma rifle to scan the area incase any monsters are in the place. The Titans soon follow after him so not to get caught. Once they were in the clearing, Alex lowered his plasma rifle and looked around one more time. Once he saw his surroundings he rolled his eyes around and gave off a long groan.
Alex: "Another warehouse underneath the base? You have got to be kidding me."
Robin could tell that he didn't like what he saw. So he looked at him with concern on his face.
Robin: "Is there something the matter Alex?"
Alex turned his head to see Rob and answered.
Alex: "No, it's nothing. It's just that, I never thought they would create a warehouse underneath the caverns. Probably since the UAC doesn't have any room for supplies and tools, they must've put everything in the cave to make…"
Alex then immediately stopped when he realized something. He immediately took his PDA out and checked the digital map to get some serious info about the caverns. Robin looked at him a bit more confused when he was clicking the pen on the screen frantically. So he intervenes.
Robin: "Um, Alex…"
But Alex interrupted him just as he was about to say something.
Alex: "Not now Robin, I'm figuring something out.
Robin blinked a couple of times then shrugged his shoulders.
Robin: "Okay…"
Alex continued clicking the map to see the former route they would've took and the warehouse they're in.
Alex: 'Let's see… The route we should've went to before Raven destroyed the lift would take about 45 minutes to get to the surface. But with monsters everywhere, closed passages, and the Vagary on our tail it would take us a lot longer and we won't have enough air in out tanks to get us to Gamma Labs. But now, we're at some underground warehouse underneath the installation that's loaded with just about everything. And if they managed to get all this stuff down here that means…' … "Of course, that's it!"
Without warning, he quickly raced off through the underground warehouse. The Titans were looking at each other after they saw their guardian running after something and immediately went after him. Robin ran beside Alex and wondered why he was running.
Robin: "What's the hurry?"
Alex: "I think I discovered something right now Rob. Think about it. How do you think the UAC put all this stuff underneath the complex?"
Robin: "Um… By lift?"
Alex: "Exactly. So if they managed to move all of this underneath then that means…"
They all turned to the right of the warehouse and kept running. But they stopped when they saw what they couldn't believe. In front of them is another huge lift that moves the cargo up and down the underground warehouse. Alex checks his PDA one more time to see where the elevator goes while the Titans stared in awe at the lift.
Alex: "According to my PDA, this lift would take us to the surface level. So that means we have finally found a way to get to Gamma. Yes!"
Robin: "But are you sure that the lift is actually working?"
Alex: "Only one way to find out."
He puts his PDA away and approached the lift just to see if it's operating with the Titans following suit. When he approaches the lift, he checked the lift control screen only to see bold red letters that said, "Lockdown Activated. Lift Access Suspended." Knowing that can't be good, Alex approached the Titans that were at the entrance of the lift and gave them the details.
Robin: "Well?"
Alex: "The lift is working, but the problem is that we're locked out of the place."
Cyborg: "What else is new?"
Robin turned his head directly to Cyborg and stopped him there.
Robin: "Cyborg, not now."
He then looked back at Alex to see what to do next.
Robin: "So now what are we going to do?"
Alex looked around, trying to think of how to shut off the lockdown. It was then that he spotted a control room above the warehouse and could tell that's the place that can operate the lift. He then pointed the control room to the team as they all turned and looked up to the room.
Alex: "That control room up there must have the console that disables the lockdown. I'm going to check and see if I can shut it down."
He got off the lift and was about to head to the smaller lift that can take him up there. But before he could do that, there was a sudden explosion followed by a loud shriek. Alex stopped in his tracks and looked at the corner where the team turned and where the sounds were coming from. Suddenly, two freighters were soaring out of the corner and hit the cavern walls. Soon after that, they saw the Vagary coming out of the corner and it was extremely pissed. Quickly Alex took his plasma rifle out to get ready, same with the team as they got their things ready for the fight. But after they were done, Beast Boy looked around a realized this was just like the first time they fought the Vagary, only this time they were in a cave.
Beast Boy: "Um… Does anyone get the strange feeling of dai ja vue all over again?"
Alex: "Let's not worry about that Beast Boy. Right now are main concern is the kill this thing and reactivate the lift so we can get to the surface."
Starfire: "You think we could succeed?"
Alex: "I believe so. We've taken this freak out before, we can do it again."
They were about to attack, until the Vagary shrieked once more and raised its hands in the air. After it did that, fifty Ticks and Trites came down from the ceiling and out of their hiding places and hissed at the team. The Titans just watched on in horror, frozen in their tracks, until Raven popped in with a small remark.
Raven: "Just when things couldn't get any worse…"
The front end of the spider army leapt in the air and was going to attack them. Luckily for the Titans, Alex and Cyborg quickly aimed their weapons at the swarm and shot them down before they could gnaw their faces off. But the rest of the hoard scattered straight towards the team, ready for the main feast. Robin then took his exploding disks out and gave them the call.
Robin: "Titans, Go!"
He jumped up in the air and threw the disks at them, killing part of them in one blast. Starfire then rose to the sky and blast her star bolts at the hoard of spiders. Cyborg pulled the trigger of his chain gun and within seconds, killed off a dozen of Ticks and Trites. Same goes with Alex, as he kept firing his rifle and took out half of the Ticks. Beast Boy levitated to a flammable barrel not far from them and used the Grabber to shot it at the spider and killed the most of the hoards. When the Vagary saw what they were doing, so it lifted its arms up and two freight containers lifted off the ground and it threw them at the team. Raven, with quick thinking, levitated in the air with eyes glowing white and lifted her black obsidian hands at them. When she did that, the containers were covered in dark energy and they both stopped. She then focuses her powers and tossed them back at the spider monster. The Vagary ducked low just in time for the containers to miss it and hit the opposite end of the cavern walls. It then got up and shrieked again as more mutated spiders kept coming out of the woodworks and headed to the team. Everyone just kept firing with everything they had in their disposal. Alex immediately ran out of rounds as he took quick cover behind the boxes and reloaded a fresh cell. He then took out his machine gun and was about to use them as dueling weapons. But before he would come out of his hiding place, Robin came to him and told him about this situation.
Robin: "There's too many of them! I don't think we can get rid of them at the rate we're in."
Alex: "Well I don't know how to stop all of them at once. And if I did, I would've had a rocket launcher to rip them to shreds and kill that Vagary in the process."
Robin: "Well then what else can we do?"
Alex lowered his head and was trying to think of a plan to destroy them all. When he turned his head to the left, he spotted one of the crates that he was sitting next to him. At the side that was next to him, there was a label that says, "Explosive Charges. Use with caution." After observing the crate, he came up with a real good idea and looked at Robin.
Alex: "We cave this place in. Help me open this crate."
He quickly kneeled up and tried to open the crate with his bare hands, but that didn't work. Robin quickly took his Bo staff out of his utility belt and jammed it on the topside part of the crate to pry it open. Alex joined in and they both use their feet and their strength to pull the crate open. They continued to push and pry the crate's top, unaware that a couple of more Trites were coming straight to them. But before they would attack, half of them got shredded by hallow rounds while the others avoided them. The rest looked to see who was shooting at them, only to see Cyborg with his chain gun in hand.
Cyborg: "Don't you dare go near them!"
The spiders immediately hissed and leapt at the hybrid. He then pulled the trigger as the drum rotated and fired more rounds at the spiders. When all the spiders were dead, his chain gun clanked, meaning that he ran out of ammo. So he took out a full box of ammo, took the belt out of the slot, and attached it to the chain gun. Once the ammo gauge is full, Cy went back to work and opened fire on every spider that was coming towards him and his team. Back to Alex and Robin, they were still trying to open the crate with a staff and their own brute strength. After a couple of tries, they managed to burst the top open. With that done, Robin puts away his staff as Alex approached the open crate. When he looked inside it, he was quite pleased at all the detonators inside the box. Robin then approached the crate to see the devices, then wondered what he's going to do with them.
Robin: "So, how are you going to blow this cave up?"
Alex: "It's pretty simple Rob. First we must place these charges up on the ceiling, then we turn the lift back on. Once we're on the lift and away from the clearing, I'll detonate the charges and the whole section will collapse, killing both the spiders and the Vagary. Piece of cake."
Robin: "And how are we going to do all that at the same time?"
Alex: "All ready got that covered."
Alex looked behind him to see the team still going at it with everything they got.
Alex: "Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire, come here at once. I got orders to give you."
Quickly the three Titans left their positions and headed to Alex while Cyborg kept blasting the creeps away with his weapon.
Starfire: "What is it friend Alex?"
Alex: "I got a plan to get us out of this mess. But in order to do this, we have to work together to make this work."
He turned his head to look at Raven.
Alex: "Raven, I want you to use your levitation powers and lift all these charges up from out of the box to the ceiling."
Raven looked at the box that's loaded with detonators and nodded.
Raven: "Got it."
He then looked over at Starfire and Beast Boy who were standing behind the telepath.
Alex: "Beast Boy, you head up to the control room and get that lift working if we're ever going to get out of here. Starfire is going to be with you to give you all the back up you need. You two understand?"
The two teammates looked up at the control room above them and understood. Starfire looked at her guardian and nodded.
Starfire: "Affirmative."
Alex: "Robin, Cyborg, and I will hold the spiders and the Vagary back while the three of you get everything set up for the escape. Hopefully, we will be able to get through this together."
Beast Boy: "Whoa, whoa, whoa… Hold on for just one second."
Everyone immediately turned to see Beast Boy that was a little concerned at this.
Beast Boy: "Why are we listening to you when we should be listening to Robin? He's the leader for goodness sake."
Alex: "I understand that Beast Boy. But when it comes to getting out of situations like this, it's obvious that I would take the leading role."
Robin: "He's right Beast Boy. If we are going to get out of here and back to the past, we have to listen to him no matter what."
Everyone remained silent for just a moment until Alex broke it.
Alex: "All right guys, let's get moving!"
Quickly, the team split up and headed to different directions. Alex and Robin joined Cyborg and started killing spiders with dual machine and plasma rifle and an R-Sword. Beast Boy headed straight to the lift to head up to the control room and clicked on the screen to ascend to the upper level. While he was doing that, Starfire noticed a couple of Trites heading their way, so she flew up in the air and threw star bolts at them. But for Raven, she looked down at the open box loaded with charges with eyes beginning to glow bright white. She then waved her arms around and said her magic words.
Raven: "Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!!!"
Suddenly, the box exploded and all the detonators came out, all covered in black magic and souring up in the sky. They all quickly attached themselves to the cave ceiling and immediately blinked at the ready. Now that phase one is complete, it's time for phase two. Beast Boy made it up to the control room floor and headed straight to the entrance door while Starfire was busy shooting off Ticks and Trites. Once he made it through the door, he searched for the console that operates the lift. Skimming through the screens, he found one with the title that says, "Lift Operation Controls". He was about to turn on the suspended lift until he spotted a message below the title that says, "PDA clearance required." That made Beast Boy roll his eyes around and sighed in an aggravated tone.
Beast Boy: "Oh great…"
He then rushed out of the control room and waved his hands up and down to get Star's attention. And it did got her attention when she turned around and saw the changeling waving frantically at her. She soared towards him, trying to figure out what he wants.
Beast Boy: "Star, we have a problem."
Down on the ground floor, the three teammates were pretty busy with the mutated spiders all around them. With bullets flying and swords swinging, they were literally doing some damage just about everywhere. Alex was using his two weapons in both hands and shoot down a squad of Trites coming his way, unaware that a squad of Ticks was coming right behind him. They were about to leap and kill until a series of green bolts came down the killed them. Alex stopped firing and turned around to see a big heap of spider goo behind him then looked up to see what was the cause. What he saw was Starfire coming down the ground with fading green light on her hands. Once she landed her feet to the ground, both Alex and Robin, who also saw her coming down from the air, approached her to see what she's doing there.
Robin: "What is it Starfire?"
Starfire: "We've seem to have a problem with the lift."
The two looked at each other then looked back at Star.
Alex: "What is it Star?"
Starfire: "Beast Boy says that he can't gain access to the lift. He needs a PDA to gain the access you need."
Robin then turned his head to Alex, knowing that he's the only person that has a PDA.
Robin: "Alex, can you use your PDA to get access?"
Al looked at Robin and shook his head for a no.
Alex: "I don't think my PDA has that type of clearance for something like that. And unless we have another PDA that has that, then I'm afraid we have to make a final stand here."
Robin then looked around the warehouse and came up with an idea.
Robin: "Maybe there's a PDA around this place."
Alex, upon hearing this, had his eyes wide in surprise.
Alex: "Are you crazy?! Finding a PDA in this place is like finding a needle in a haystack. How are you ever going to find it?"
The Boy Wonder took out his grappling and aimed it at the pipe above the warehouse.
Robin: "By instinct."
He pushed the button and the hook shot up to the pipe and attached itself to it. Once he got a hold of it, Rob pushed the button again and flew up in the air to avoid the Vagary. Both Alex and Starfire watched on as the guardian shook his head one more time at Robin's idea.
Alex: "Dead man walking…"
Suddenly, Starfire looked up and saw a load of crates heading straight towards the two.
Starfire: "Look out!!!"
The two both flew and jumped out of the way as the crates crashed to the spot where Al and Star were. When Alex looked up, he saw the Vagary ready to throw more projectiles at them. Only this time, it was levitating multiple flammable barrels at them. Seeing that, Alex swallowed a lump in his throat and was scared straight.
Alex: "Make that dead men walking!"
The Vagary then threw the barrels at the team as they were ready to feel the explosion. But in a second, all the barrels just stopped in mid air and were floating in a blanket of dark energy. Everyone looked up at the barrels a little confused, but when they turned their heads they saw Raven in the air holding the barrels with her telepathy. She looked down at them and had a small smile on her face.
Raven: "You need any help?"
She then looked up to see the spider monster and pushed her hands back to toss the barrels at it. The Vagary saw it coming, so it jumped on freight car to freight car to avoid the flammable materials. But then the last remaining barrels formed together and soared straight to it. The creature wasn't prepared for that as they hit it in a blast of flames and it soured to the end of the cavern wall. It felt the impact so hard that it shook its head in pain. But when it looked to the right, it saw Robin jumping from freight to freight to find a PDA and began to snarl.
In the other part of the warehouse, Robin was searching frantically for a PDA that would have security clearance to the lift controls. He looked through corners and passages, open boxes, and bodies all wrapped in a spider web like cocoon, but still no luck. After looking at another small passage between to freights, he shocked his head and rubbed his temples.
Robin: "Damn it! Still no sign of that PDA. Alex was right, this is like finding a needle in a haystack."
He then jumped onto another crate and see if there's one in another area. Just as he was about to give up, he spotted a bunch of cocoon like bodies all over the floor, probably the Vagary's feeding ground. But next to one of the bodies was a PDA with the screen light on. With a smile on his face, he jumped down to the ground and approached the PDA. When he picked it up, he checked the ID page to see what kind of clearance it has. And lucky for him, it has clearance for lift control. Looking at the screen, he gave out a sigh of relief.
Robin: "Finally…"
He put the PDA away in his utility belt and was going to head back to the others. But before he could turn around, he heard a loud thump from behind and a big shadow looming over him. When he felt the warm breath tickling down his neck and the sound of some grunting, he knew what's in store for him. When he slowly turned around to see his opponent, he caught a glimpse of the Vagary starring at him with the many eyes on its face. When he saw that, the creature lifted it's arm, extended its claws, and made an attempted slash to Robin's face. The Boy Wonder immediately ducked down to avoid the attack, missing him by a few inches of his helmet. It then did another slash with its other arm to cut his legs, But Robin quickly got up, jumped high up to avoid the second attempt, and immediately did a front kick at the chin. He spun backwards in the air and landed three feet away from the creature. When he looked up he saw the Vagary shaking off the affects of the kick, but looked at the Titan leader and screamed at him. It was then that Robin took out two birdarangs and formed them together to create his R-Sword. Robin positioned his sword like a samurai and was ready for the spider monster.
Robin: "C'mon, bring it!"
As soon as he said that, the Vagary positioned its legs and leapt to Robin's position. When it did that, it immediately slice left and right while Robin avoided the swinging strikes. He then ducked low from the fifth slice, rolled from the right, and used his sword to cut the mid side of the creature's abdominal area. The Vagary saw it with its own eyes and screamed ever louder as it used both its hands to cut him down the middle. But the Boy Wonder luckily jumped back to avoid the sudden death blow. He landed on the freight wall with both his feet, positioned them quick, and uses all his strength to jump off it to head straight for the creature. Within a second, he positions his sword and this time; slice the creature below the chest area. He landed, rolled, and made an abrupt stop to turn around and looked at the damage he had caused. Turned out, the Vagary scurried to see him while examining the blood tickling down below her right breast. It looked up, screamed again, and leapt one more time to rip him to pieces.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Titans were busy destroying Ticks and Trites at the loading area of the underground warehouse. On the ground, Cyborg and Alex were shooting in every direction to kill off a few spiders that were close to them. While in the air, Starfire and Raven fired with energy projectiles at the ones that were farther away from them, just to give them a good advantage. But at the control room of the warehouse, Beast Boy was using his Grabber to fire off some medium sized objects at the spiders that were coming up to the catwalk and headed into the control room. He then retracted them back with the thing green chain of light and waited for more to come. And to his luck, more of them came up and headed towards him. So he fired off a couple of small metal crates and chairs and they were all knocked out dead. With all of them dead, he was glad what was over. But suddenly, he heard hissing and scampering from behind, so he turned around to see the spiders coming up the windows of the room and aimed the grabber to kill them. But for some strange reason, they just ignored the changeling and continued to go up. This was odd for BB because they would've attack him in all directions. But they're just avoiding him like he's invisible. He then approached the automated door and saw more of the spiders passing him through the catwalk and crawling up the cave walls. So when he looked up, he saw them climbing up to the ceiling, where the explosive charges are. He was completely unaware that they were going to do that, but then he realizes his friends don't know it yet. So he looked down at the ground floor where they were still fighting and warn them in the loudest of voices.
Beast Boy: "Guys! We've got trouble above us!"
Everyone looked at Beast Boy who was at the catwalk and was pointed up. When they look up, they all saw the Ticks and Trites scampering close to the ceiling loaded with detonators. When Alex saw that, he knew what they were doing and had his eyes grew wide and fear.
Alex: "Aw shit NO!"
He quickly looked at Starfire and Raven who were still watching on and gave them and direct order.
Alex: "Starfire! Raven!"
The two Titan girls bowed their heads down to look at Alex that had both a strong yet fearful voice.
Alex: "Get up there and take those things out of their misery! If those spiders get close to the detonators and blow up, not only the Vagary would be buried, but so will we! Go NOW!"
The two understood what he meant, nodded, and flew up to the ceiling. They then charged their star bolts and aurora blasts started firing them at the spiders that were getting close to the charges. While they were busy stopping the spiders from blowing up close to the charges, Al and Cy went back to work on killing off the hoard around them on the ground. Using their machine, chain, and plasma guns, they turned left and right, clipping them off one by one. But back at the catwalk, Beast Boy watched on to see the battles on both areas, unaware that spiders were crawling down from the ceiling and landed on the next to him. They then hissed as the changeling turned his head to the right and saw them scampering towards him. Quickly, he backed away from them to reenter the control room and fight back; forgetting that the objects he kept on throwing was behind him. He initially tripped off the chair he tossed at them earlier and landed on his ass. When he looked at them, they were hungry for something juicy. Beast Boy didn't know what to do until he had his Grabber aimed at one of the spiders getting closer to them and accidentally pulled the trigger. When the thin green light line popped out of the front end and grabbed a Trite, it started floating around for a little while until the changeling let go of the trigger and spider exploded in spidey goo. The rest of the spiders starred in shock when they saw one of their own got killed by a near useless weapon. But Beast Boy looked at the weapon that killed the spider and smiled.
Beast Boy: "Sweet…"
He then looked at the spiders and they were still staring at the weapon. They immediately panicked and scatter away from the weapon while BB got up quick and started firing his weapon at them.
Beast Boy: "What's the matter? I thought you guys were hungry. C'mon boys, come and get me now!"
He kept shooting his Grabber at the spiders running away before they could disappear. The team kept on fighting the spiders to hold them back until they could get the lift to operate normally.
Back to Robin, he was still battling the Vagary, trying everything in his hands to slow it down. He kept using his sword to slice it up in multiple areas in the waist, the sides, and the area where the rear was. He even cut one of its left hand, and a spider leg on both sides, but it's still kicking it strong. After slicing its waist again diagonally and avoiding another slash from the creature's now only hand, he jumped away from the monster and landed away from it. Panting exhaustively, he was trying to think of a way to stop it temporarily to reach the others.
Robin: "Man, I hit it with everything I have and it's still going. There's got to be something to slow it down. But what?"
He looked around while the Vagary felt a little weak, but still was ready for a fight. It was then that he spotted a hanging scaffolding that had barrels stacked on top of each other. Once he observed it, he came up with a plan. But when he looked back at the creature, it had both its arms up and levitated a few objects off the ground and fired them one at a time. The Boy Wonder came unprepared for that as he jumped and dodged the flying objects from metal grating to spiked boulders. It then lifted up a cocoon body in front of it and threw it at the leader. But Robin quickly readied his sword and sliced the cocoon in half, letting blood and guts splatter on his environment suit. But what just happened was actually and distraction. As he cut the body, the Vagary leapt and pinned the Titan leader to the ground. After it did that, it then bent over and used its only hand to chock his neck. Robin tried to break free from the hold but failed miserably. He thought it was all over for him, only until he looked up right and spotted a screwdriver close to him. He reached it out with his right free hand while the creature's face was getting close to his and saliva coming down its face and dripping on his visor, ready to eat him. Finally, after an attempt or two, he got a hold of the screwdriver and immediately forced it straight into one the eyes of the creature. The creature immediately stood up and screamed in both agony and pain. It scampered away from the boy as Robin did a quick headstand and jumped flipped backwards to get away from it. When he saw the Vagary trying to remove the screwdriver out of its eye with one hand, he saw it was over the hanging scaffolding. So he took out two more birdarangs with one hand, aimed them precisely, and threw them at the front wires hanging on the scaffolding. They cut the wires and the scaffolding slanted and caused all the barrels to fall straight down to the Vagary. When the creature looked up to see the barrels, it never had enough time to get out of the way as the barrels landed and piled on top of it and knocked it out unconscious. When all that was over, he wiped the saliva, blood, and guts off his suit and looked at the barrels the creature was buried on.
Robin: "Serves you right not to mess with me."
He then took out his grappling hook, aimed it at another pipe, and opened fire. He retracted the hook back and flew over the warehouse to join the others, unaware that the spider creature was stirring and the barrels were moving around.
Back to the docking area, the team continued their onslaught at the hoard of Ticks and Trites. Cyborg and Alex were killing spiders on the ground, Starfire and Raven were destroying them on the ceiling, and Beast Boy was having a field day with them at the control room floor. But no matter how much they kill, more of them keep coming out of nowhere and continue the assault.
Cyborg: "Man, how many of these things are there?!"
Alex: "By my guess, ever since the invasion started a couple of hours ago, about ten million. Either way, we have to keep them back until Robin gets here with the PDA clearance!"
As they continued attacked, some of the spiders came down the ceiling to avoid the girls' firepower and looked at the guys as the optional choice. But before they could leap in for the attack, a bunch of exploding disks came out of the blue and blew them up upon impact. When the two looked at the batch killed they looked up to see Robin coming down from the high level and landed on his feet on the floor where the spiders were. He then looked at the two and smiled.
Robin: "Someone said my name?"
The two just stood there and were a bit quiet until they heard more hissing sounds and went back to work. The three turned around with their back against each other with all the tools in their disposal, waiting for their enemies to step forward. When they came into view, the boys started killing them with guns and a sword. Once Alex's side was all clear, he turned around to see Robin and alerted him at the task at hand.
Alex: "Quit wasting time Robin! Give that PDA to Beast Boy so we can get out of here!"
He then spotted a couple of more Ticks coming out of the tiny passages in between the crates. So he turned around and took them out with his dual weapons. Robin, after killing a Trite with his sword, looked up and saw Beast Boy on the catwalk, clipping them off with his Grabber.
Robin: "Beast Boy!"
BB looked down after hearing his name and saw Robin taking out the PDA from his utility belt and waved it.
Robin: "Catch!"
The Boy Wonder then threw the PDA straight to the changeling, but Beast Boy won't be able to catch it in the height he's in. And he can't change into any flying animal to grab it because his suit won't follow the change and he'll have the lack of oxygen, even if he's underground. So he took and easy way and used his Grabber to get a hold of the PDA and retracted it back to him. When it moved close to him, he was able to take it while shutting his weapon down at the same time. Once he got a hold of the PDA, he went back into the control room and headed for the lift control terminal. He then inserted the PDA into the slot and waited for the computer to gain access. After it beeped a couple of times, he moves the mouse pointer with the touch pad and clicked on the "Deactivate Lockdown" icon on the screen. But just when he was finished with that, the door opened to his right side, so he turned around and to see who's coming in. What it was was a bunch of Ticks coming through the door. He was getting ready for another assault, but then, multiple star bolts came raining down at the creatures and killed them all. Beast Boy was a little confused at what happened, only to see Starfire floating down to the entry way and saw BB with a look of silent.
Starfire: "You need a lift, friend Beast Boy?"
Back down on the ground, the others were handling business of their own, trying to kill as many spiders as they can. They continued their strike until they heard an announcement coming out of nowhere.
"Attention: Service lift now operational."
When Alex heard that, he sighed in relief and went back to business.
Alex: "All right! Everyone inside the lift now!"
Quickly, every Titan made a mad dash to the lift, except Cyborg who was still slowing down the hoard at bay. Alex and Robin first got in, followed by an air born Starfire that was carrying Beast Boy by the hands and Raven that finished off the spiders that were trying to destroy the detonators. Soon enough, Cyborg finished cleaning off the mess and was the last person to head towards the lift. Everyone thought they were going to be home free, but they're wrong. For when Cyborg was a few feet closer to the lift, a loud shriek was heard all over the underground warehouse. Cyborg stopped dead in his tracks when he and the others had heard that and turned around to see where that came from. Suddenly, coming out of the left corner of the warehouse was the Vagary, busting through barrels and crates and landed on a freight cart. And thanks to Robin, it was all bruised and bloodied with a screwdriver sticking out where one of its eyes used to be. It then screamed aloud and this time, an army of spiders was heading towards the team. Cyborg, still outside the lift, watched on in fear as the team leader tried to coax him into getting in.
Robin: "C'mon Cyborg, get in!"
Cy immediately turned back to the lift and ran as fast as he could. While he was heading there, Alex quickly approached the lift's panel and clicked on the "Ascend Lift" icon. In a moment, the lift started to shake and move up a few inches. As it started to move up, the hybrid continued to run faster, only to have and gang of Trites following him. Starfire saw that, so she has her eyes glowing green and fired bolts of energy at them. Alex joined in and used his machine gun to take out the rest. After the spiders behind Cyborg were dead, he jumped up to the lift and landed on the edge. When he turned back to the warehouse, they all saw the Vagary and a large swarm of Ticks and Trites heading towards them. Alex watched on, but told Robin to do one more thing for him.
Alex: "Robin, hand me one of your disks."
Robin looked at Alex, realizing what he's going to do, and nodded. He stuffed his hand in one of the compartments of his utility belt, took out the disk, and hand it to him. Once Alex got a hold of it, he looked up at the charges on the ceiling and back to the Vagary and the spider army getting closer. He then positioned the disk and said something to the spider hybrid before throwing it.
Alex: "Like I said before… Rot in piece BITCH!!!"
The guardian threw the disk upward like a Frisbee and headed straight to the charges. When it connected, it blew up one of the detonators, then caused a chain reaction with all the others. Both the Vagary and the spiders stopped a few feet at the ascending lift and looked up to see fire above them followed by huge boulders coming down. Within seconds, the rocks and debris crushed the spiders and destroyed the underground warehouse, causing a massive cave-in that engulfed pretty mush everything. Even the Vagary tried its best to avoid the rocks, but when it screeched in anger, and huge boulder the size of a pickup truck squashed it hard like a foot crushing a cockroach. Soon enough, the entire warehouse was nothing more then a mere heap of rubble. But luckily, the Teen Titans and Alex were away from the mess the moment it started. Even Raven formed a shield around the lift when the explosion occurred. While they were heading up, Alex took a final glimpse at the destroyed warehouse it before disappeared from view the smirked.
Alex: "Let's see you get out of that freak."
The lift continued to go upward, reaching to the higher level. It would be a matter of time before they get out of the cave and be one step closer to Gamma. And that means one step closer in going back to the past to prevent the future. So Robin looked up at the darkness above and whispered in his own breath.
Robin: "Almost home…"
And that's part 3 of the Mars Surface. Or… The Return of the Vagary. A bit long I could understand, but the next chapter will be a whole lot shorter. And the beauty of it is that it's the final part. The team now has to journey through the outside of the complex to get closer to the lab. But with hoards of monsters around them and low air in their tanks, they have to fight both tooth and nail to reach their goal. Will they make it in time or die with no air in their lungs? Just wait and see. Please Review.