Chapter 10- The Stronghold of General Immortus
"Nothing can stop the General now!"
The soldier's words echoed through Robin's mind as he watched the rocket climb skyward, trailing white smoke behind itself. He didn't know what payload that missile carried, but something told him that it was connected to whatever Immortus had taken from the research base- and that whatever it was, it was a terrible threat to the entire world.
"Dude," Beast Boy whispered, "what are we gonna do?"
"We need to stop that missile," Robin said. "Whatever it is, if the General's men here are so happy about it, it can't be good."
Cyborg checked a scanner on his arm and looked up at Robin with a worried expression on his face. "It's giving off massive amounts of energy, whatever it is," he said. "Way more than an ordinary missile would need."
"All right- here's the plan," Robin said, motioning for the other Titans. "Starfire, Raven- you're our best flyers. Do everything you can to take down that missile. We can't let it do whatever Immortus has planned for it. Cyborg, Beast Boy, you're with me. We're going after the old man himself."
"Robin," Starfire said, stepping forward tentatively. "I believe the phrase you would use is 'good luck'."
"Yes," he said. "Good luck to you too, Star. I'm counting on you and Raven to take that thing down."
Starfire stood still for a moment, and then she lunged forward and wrapped Robin in a tight embrace. Robin returned it as best he could; though the Tamaranean's strong arms had his own very nicely pinned. Finally Starfire pulled away, allowing Robin to catch his breath. Then she and Raven shot off into the desert sky.
"Are you ready, man?" Cyborg asked after a moment.
"Yeah," Robin said with a tight smile. "Let's go."
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Louis Giscard had never been known for being a remarkable man in any sense of the word. He was rather plain looking, neither intelligent nor particularly stupid, and possessed no true skills to speak of. He joined the Brotherhood under the Brain's leadership in Paris not because he was truly interested in a life of crime but because he simply had nothing better to do with himself. General Immortus appeared to have recognized Giscard's innate mediocrity, because he assigned him to the position of guarding the gate of a fortress that was protected by the vast, barren desert than it ever could be by human guards. Therefore Giscard began to find himself quite superfluous, not to mention bored, and he was seriously wondering whether or not his paycheck was worth it.
The guard paused a moment to wipe sweat from his brow- seriously, did it have to be this blasted hot all the time out here?- and when he looked up again, he saw a peculiar sight. A cloud of dust was rising up from the desert, far too small to be a sandstorm- almost as if someone or something very large was coming towards the fortress. Giscard raised his binoculars to his eyes and brought them into focus- then dropped them to the ground with a clatter, stunned by what he'd seen.
A large, green Tyrannosaurus Rex, ridden by two humans (one of whom was wearing some sort of high-tech armor, or so it looked to Giscard) was charging towards General Immortus's fortress at top speed. Giscard blinked for a moment, quite unable to believe his eyes, and brought the binoculars up again to verify. Confirming that, indeed, the T. rex was real, the hapless guard cursed loudly in French and hurried off to sound the alarm- wondering idly exactly what the alert code for a dinosaur attack was.
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The beam cannons were firing as Beast Boy charged up to the citadel's walls, Robin and Cyborg on his back. A few of the beams managed to score direct hits (though this did little damage to the thick-skinned dinosaur) but for the most part the shots went wide. The cannons were intended to fire at large masses of troops or slow moving vehicles, and were having a hard time targeting their living adversaries.
Still, they were annoying (and potentially dangerous, should a stray hit land on Robin or Cyborg), but the Titan leader was ready. As soon as Beast Boy was close enough to the walls, Robin jumped to his feet and hurled a series of small, explosive disks. One by one the bombs struck the cannons, doing varying amounts of damage but ensuring that those weapons emplacements nearest the team were in no condition to fire.
Beast Boy gave a growl deep in his throat when the beams had stopped firing and lowered his head, charging the wall at top speed. He slammed into it with all the force a seven-ton reptile could bring to bear- and bounced back, roaring in pain as the wall covered itself in seething bolts of electricity.
"It's trapped," Robin said. "Looks like Immortus doesn't want company."
"Maybe if we try together," Cyborg mused, priming his sonic cannon. "All right, BB- round two!" Beast Boy growled in the affirmative and charged the wall again, this time at the same time as Cyborg fired his built-in weapon. The two struck the wall together, and for a moment the electric defenses blazed- and then ceased altogether as the wall crumbled. Beast Boy shoved his way through the thick barrier, shrinking back to his true form as soon as he was on the other side. The green shapeshifter stood there, groaning and rubbing his forehead while Robin and Cyborg stood behind him.
"Raven always says I should use my head more," he said, "but I don't think she means it that literally!"
Robin gave him a moment to recuperate, then motioned for both his teammates to follow. "Come on," he said. "The guards will be here soon, and we need to get moving. We have to find a computer for Cyborg to hack so we can find Immortus and end this."
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Red X looked over General Immortus's shoulder as the old man stooped over his security monitor, studying the image of Robin and his friends tearing their way through his elite forces like they were nothing. X would have found the scene rather amusing under ordinary circumstances, but he had no wish to laugh right now and earn the General's wrath. Megalomaniacs were notoriously touchy like that.
Besides, he had his new employer's goals to consider, assuming he wanted to come out of this whole affair rather richer.
"Pathetic," Immortus whispered to himself. "How is it that I am left with these imbeciles? Would that I had Alexander and his Companions with me now- they knew war!" The old man studied the footage again, his brow creasing in thought. "But where are the two females? Robin has divided his forces- but why?"
Red X had a pretty good idea, but he felt it was best to discourage the General from that line of thought. "You want me to go down their and handle them for you?" he asked. "It'll cost you extra, but your boys clearly don't have what it takes."
Immortus turned slowly to regard the thief. "That won't be necessary," he said. "We don't need to stop them- just hold them off until the device is activated. That must be where Starfire and Raven are- Robin sends his flyers to stop my missile before it reaches the upper atmosphere. But it is quite safe- my security measures will delay them until the device goes off, and then it will be too late."
"But what about the Titans here?"
Immortus smiled. "They are no doubt here to take me captive. But Lieutenant General Smithson has a surprise waiting for them, I think. Even if they make it past him, they will find that I am no easy prey." The Forever Soldier drew the sword from his side and held it up, the bright steel catching the light and reflecting the old man's skull-like face.
"It has been too long since I have crushed an enemy in single combat," he murmured, bringing the blade through lazy practice swings. X was no swordsman, but still he could tell that Immortus was very good, carrying out his moves with casual grace. "I must make certain my skills are still sharp after all these centuries."
X agreed that allowing Immortus to duel the Titans would be a good thing. Both parties would be thoroughly distracted, allowing the thief to make his planned move.
Immortus wouldn't know what hit him.
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The three Titans had finally found a computer interface and Cyborg was plugged in, scanning the network for information on General Immortus's whereabouts. Robin and Beast Boy (in wolf-form, none of his favorite dinosaurs being small enough to fit in the tight corridors) stood behind him, fighting off what felt like dozens of grey-uniformed guards. Finally, the latest group of guards lying in a heap and still groaning, Cyborg turned back to his friends and reported his findings.
"Immortus is in his command center," Cyborg said. "Top floor."
"All right," Robin said. "Come on."
The Titans hurried through the mazelike corridors of the fortress, following Cyborg's directions and heading perpetually up. As they came closer and closer to the Forever Soldier's sanctum, though, Robin began to notice something strange- the hallways were empty. Before there had been the ever-present guards, but now even they were gone. Was Immortus so sure of himself that he had dispensed with all protection?
Finally they came to a high, thick door that completely blocked the passage. "We need to go through here," Cyborg said. "You two- stand back!" He brought his sonic cannon up and set off a blast at full power. The huge door was blown inwards, and the three entered.
It was a massive hangar, one of the walls lined with huge shapes covered in cloth, the other apparently a giant hatch that would open to allow whatever the strange forms were to enter and leave the fortress. Another door stood at the other end of the room.
"We need to go through that door, then straight up," Cyborg said. "Immortus is right above us."
"I wonder what those big things are?" Beast Boy said, staring around himself in awe. "At least there aren't any guards here."
"You shouldn't tempt fate like that, Titan," a loud, American-accented voice rang through the hangar. Beneath the cloth, one of the giant forms was stirring and rustling- and then, with a flourish, it tore the cloth away.
The revealed form was that of a huge robotic warrior, created in the rough image of a human being except for the fact that it was heavily laden with weapons. This was no true robot, however- the chestplate was clear, and inside Robin could see the form of its pilot, a man in a uniform similar to the one he saw Immortus wearing in Paris, though somewhat less ornate.
The machine raised an arm and aimed a huge beam cannon at the Titans. "Surrender now, boys," the pilot said, "and I'll let you live."
Cyborg shoved Robin out of the line of fire. "Go, man!" he shouted. "Get Immortus! BB and me can handle this anime escapee."
The beam cannon swiveled to aim at Robin, but before it could fire Beast Boy had grown into his Tyrannosaurus form once again and charged the giant battlesuit, forcing it back against one of the walls. Robin gave both his friends a parting look and a nod, and then turned and hurried down the hangar. They were doing this so he could get to Immortus. He wasn't going to waste it.
Robin blasted the door open with an explosive disk and hurried through, entering a corridor that rose steadily upward. The Titan leader ran along it until he at last came to another door. Drawing a deep breath, knowing what must await him beyond it, he pulled out another bomb and hurled it. The door blew inward, and Robin strode inside.
General Immortus smiled at Robin from where he stood in the center of the room, a naked blade in hand. Red X was at his side.
(PS- if anyone who's been reading this has not reviewed, please do so. I would greatly appreciate it Thanks a lot! MG)