Chapter 6- Escape
Raven floated in the dark corridor and studied the energy-cuffs binding her wrists intently. The government scientists had been clever- they'd created a device that both tied her hands physically and magically, emitting bolts of energy that would send shocks of pain up her arms, disrupting her concentration if she attempted to use her powers to escape from them. Her captors had, however, failed to anticipate that she might escape and take her cuffs with her. Still, that left Raven with her present dilemma- how to get the cursed things off?
It was frustrating, but Raven didn't allow the emotion to cloud her mind. A clear head was essential to all magic, and her own especially- lose control, and she could become a creature that would make General Immortus and all his schemes look like child's play. More to the point, if she could figure out how these things worked, she could break them without using enough energy to set them off.
There- the power cells attached to the cuffs' inner edge. If those went dead, the whole device would shut off. Smiling slightly to herself, Raven focused her will and summoned thin tendrils of dark energy that wrapped themselves around the cells and gave a tight, quick, yank. The cells sparked and fell off, and the cuffs clattered to the ground.
Satisfied with her work, Raven slipped down the hallway, looking for the cells that held her friends.
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Robin sat in the dark, head in hands. How could these government agents be so stupid? Of all the threats he had ever faced, only Trigon had been greater than General Immortus was now, and of the two, the Forever Soldier was the more concrete and believable. Robin didn't care whether the government bought into the truth about the old man's immortality, but that un unidentified military plane had swooped down on the base at the last moment and retreated with a stolen weapon aboard could not be denied. Immortal or not, an experimental weapon was now in the hands of a madman.
Part of Robin blamed himself. If he hadn't trusted X, the Titans would have never gone to the base, and therefore the attack couldn't have been blamed on them. Another part of him maintained that this was stupid- Immortus could have stolen the weapon at any time, and if the Titans hadn't been there, all he would have lost would have been a convenient scapegoat. But the first part returned that without that scapegoat, the government would be after Immortus now, no wasting its time detaining his team. And so Robin came back to blaming himself.
"Robin?" a voice asked from the darkness, "Is that you?" Robin looked up.
"Raven?" he whispered.
"Yes!" she said, and materialized from a swirl of shadows into the heart of his cell, her normally violet eyes glowing white. She held out a hand to him. "We need to get out of here."
"How did you escape?" Robin asked, not entirely certain that this wasn't another trick.
"These people aren't used to holding mages," Raven said. "I don't think they understood how versatile my powers can be. But listen- we don't have long, and they're looking for me. Come on!" Robin reached out and took the half-demon's hand. The shadows swirled again, and they found themselves in the hall.
"What about security cameras?" Robin asked. "They could track us that way."
"On it," Raven said, raising a hand a making a sweeping motion. All the cameras along the hall shuddered and were surrounded by cocoons of shadow. "They're blind now," she whispered, her voice strained.
"Good," Robin said. Together, he hand Raven hurried down the hall. The sorceress placed her hand on her friend's shoulder and closed her eyes, reaching out with her thoughts to find each of the other Titans. As she did so, along the hallway doors sprang open and Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy stumbled out into the hallway, all bound by energy cuffs- and, in Beast Boy's case, some sort of high-tech gag that left him unable to do anything but make indignant squeaks.
"Are we escaping now, please?' Starfire asked, seeming very relieved.
"Yes," Robin said.
"Stand close, everyone," Raven said in a strained voice and beckoned all of the other Titans over. They gathered around her, and were enveloped in darkness. When it cleared, they were in the forest near where they had left the T-ship. Raven slowly sank to the ground, exhausted.
Starfire tugged experimentally at her cuffs several times and then, satisfied, gave them a hard yank. Shards of metal went flying, and the Tamaranean princess stretched her arms out luxuriously. "I would have done that sooner," she said, "but I wasn't sure that it was what Robin wanted us to do." She hurried over her friends and freed each of their hands in turn. When his cuffs had lay in broken pieces on the ground around him, Beast Boy motioned angrily to his gag.
"Can't you just leave him like that?" Raven said wearily. "I could use a little quiet." Starfire seemed momentarily torn, and then pulled off the gag.
"Dude!" Beast Boy exclaimed loudly, "what was with those guys? I tried to tell them all about Immortus, but they stuck that thing on me even before I got to the good parts! And then they didn't even give me any food, like they said they were going to, Please tell me we can go back there and kick their butts?"
"No!" Robin said. "Incompetent or not, we can't fight our own government. They think we're criminals- we can't let that become the truth. Immortus is the enemy, not them. If we can stop him, we can prove that we were telling the truth."
"I agree with Robin," Starfire said. "The General Immortus is the enemy we must defeat."
"Knew you'd say that," Cyborg put in. "Me, I don't like those guys back there any more than you, BB, but I agree with Robin and Star. If we take it out on them, they'll come after us, and we don't need that right now."
"Technically we are criminals now," said Raven. "We blasted our way out of a government base. They can't follow us right away- unless they've figured out how to track teleportation- but they will come after us eventually."
"Technically I guess we were always criminals," Robin said softly. "We did fight criminals and monsters and demons without any sort of legal authority. But if we didn't do it, Slade would have taken over, or Brother Blood would have mind-controlled everyone, or Trigon would have ended the whole world. Now Immortus is the threat, and we can't stand down just because some people at the government think we're the bad guys. Sometimes you have to break a few laws to do the right thing."
"I'm with you, Robin," said Beast Boy, an expression of uncharacteristic seriousness on his face.
"And me," said Cyborg.
"This is why you are a great leader, Robin," Starfire whispered to him. "It is because you do what is right, even when the world tells you not to. I am with you."
"Me too," Raven glided over to stand beside her leader.
"All right then," Robin said. "We need to find Immortus, and give him what's coming to him. Then we can clear our names."
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The deserts of the Arabian Peninsula are the most barren on Earth. Even now, in these days of advanced technology and global discovery, the inner reaches of the Empty Quarter have not been explored by human beings. Nothing can live in such a hostile environment long.
The fortress of General Immortus rose like a talon scraping the heavens from the heart of this vast wasteland. The Brotherhood built it on the Brain's orders, a final refuge should Paris fall into enemy hands. It was furnished with technology invented by the disembodied genius, making life possible in this barren land. The Brain was never able to use his final sanctuary, but it had not gone to waste. The Forever Soldier made his home there now.
Red X stared down from the fortress's highest window and shook his head. "Nice place you've got here, old man," he said. "The scenery leaves a little to be desired."
"I must disagree," Immortus rasped, coming to stand beside the young thief. "The desert is beautiful- pure, flat, empty. In this land, survival itself is warfare, and one must be both strong and cunning to live. There have always been great wars fought in this region of little food and less water, but some of the greatest of human achievements have come from here. It is an intriguing mix, don't you agree, young man?"
"Sure," said X, who had long since stopped paying attention. "So when do I get paid, anyway? This place isn't so nice that I want to stick around here for too long. I do have a life, you know."
"Life," Immortus chuckled, seeming to find the notion that someone barely out of his teens could have a 'life' to be quite amusing. "You will be paid when the war begins. I cannot have you leaving here and telling my plans to the highest bidder, can I?"
"I don't know your plans," X lied, but the old general smiled.
"Indeed? I was certain a person of your talents would have learned every detail of my plans within an hour of coming here."
X sighed. It certainly was annoying being around a man who had been studying people so long he could read them like open books. "Alright, you win," he said. "I hacked your database and found out everything you were up to. Satisfied?"
"No." Immortus turned back to the desert view. "I have not been satisfied in centuries. There is no challenge anymore. There is no enemy I cannot defeat. How I miss it!"
Now it was X's turn to laugh. "The Allies beat you pretty bad in WWII, or so I heard," he said. "And the Titans took you down in Europe."
"I was not in command, then!" Immortus snapped. "I only advised, and neither the Fuhrer nor the Brain did as I advised. They both felt that they alone could lead their forces to victory, and they both failed. I do not fail."
"So you really intend to do it, then?" X asked. "Take over the world?"
"In a way," Immortus said, his gaze growing distant. "I have no interest in ruling. I shall bring this world to its knees, but I will not conquer it. And so, when all the nations are stripped of their power, they will fall upon each other- and there shall be eternal war."